The Potter Valley Project

Brown Bag Lunch Online Presentation with Scott McBain, McBain Associates: The Potter Valley Project, owned by PG&E, is on the upper mainstem Eel River and has diverted water to the Russian River basin since 1909. PG&E has initiated a decommissioning process for the project, which could have profound effects on the Eel River fishery and Russian River water supply. Recent feasibility study assessments have been conducted to search for solutions that could avoid or reduce impacts to both basins, while improving conditions for native fishes. This presentation will provide an overview of those efforts and potential solutions to these fishery and water supply challenges.

Presenter Scott McBain is a fluvial geomorphologist and president of McBain Associates. Mr. McBain has spent most of his 30+ year career focusing on improving river ecosystems downstream of dams. His experience has primarily been on restoring gravel-bed rivers, assessing effects of low flows and high flows on aquatic and riparian habitat, river corridor restoration planning, and channel restoration designs. His passion is to develop science-based solutions to river management challenges that mitigate or reverse the impact of dams and other land uses on downstream river ecosystems.

Formed in January 1995, McBain Associates is a professional consulting corporation applying fluvial geomorphic and ecological research to river preservation, management, and restoration. Its primary interests are maintaining, or attaining, river ecosystem health in regulated rivers, and developing management strategies that improve those ecosystems.