Lake Pillsbury town hall highlights stakes of Scott Dam surrender: water, wildfire response and tribal rights

A Lake County town hall on potential removals in the Potter Valley project on July 8, 2025, brought residents, elected officials and tribal and environmental representatives together to air competing views on whether PG&E’s Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury should be surrendered and removed or repaired and maintained.

The meeting, organized by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, opened with Amanda Martin, chief executive officer of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, who said the chamber “does not have a position on this issue” and framed the evening as a public education forum where “all of our citizens [could] ask questions and voice our concerns.” The event assembled county supervisors, a congressional video message, representatives of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance, a Round Valley Indian Tribes member, the mayor of Cloverdale, Sierra Club representatives and the Lake Pillsbury volunteer fire chief.

Why it matters: PG&E notified regulators it plans to submit a final surrender application and draft decommissioning plan to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on 07/29/2025; a decommissioning schedule submitted in filings would begin later in the decade if approved. County officials and local residents said the outcome could affect Lake County tax revenue, property values, regional water deliveries, wildfire response capacity and tribal water rights across multiple counties.

The debate divided roughly along familiar lines. Local officials and residents, plus Lake Pillsbury Alliance leaders and the Lake Pillsbury volunteer fire chief, emphasized the lake’s role in local economies, recreation and firefighting logistics. Supervisor Bruno Sabatier described Lake Pillsbury as a regional water source and said the dam and reservoir “help the fish survive” now by maintaining cool flows; he and Chair of the Board of Supervisors E.J. Crandall emphasized concerns about economics, fire mitigation and the County’s lack of detailed, actionable plans in the PG&E filings. Sabatier said PG&E reported the facility is not generating its reported 9.4 megawatts and that the utility has argued it is losing money; he…