Trump's California Water Grab

Trump's California Water Grab

Hello,

I want to alert you to some very disturbing breaking news about a scheme to export Eel River water from my North Coast district to southern California - why I oppose it, and what I'm doing to stop it.
We've learned from media reports and statements by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that the Trump administration is trying to federalize the Potter Valley Project - to make it part of the Bureau of Reclamation, ostensibly as a way to block PG&E from removing two obsolete hydropower dams on the Eel River.

Just a couple days ago, Secretary Rollins tweeted that she has "found a buyer" for the project: the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District in Riverside County. The district confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that they are interested in buying it in order to secure new water supplies from the Eel River.

Here's why that's a problem. Right now, PG&E and our local water managers, tribes, and environmental partners have an agreement to secure local control of PG&E's water rights for the first time in a century - and to build a new reliable water supply and fish-friendly diversion so PG&E can remove its dams while maintaining water deliveries for Mendocino County and the North Bay. This two-basin solution is supported by state agencies, Governor Newsom, elected officials across the North Coast, the fishing and environmental community, and local tribes. It restores salmon, creates jobs, and protects our water supplies.

The only holdup is the Trump administration - and now we are seeing the outlines of their plans for our water. Secretary Rollins is leading the effort to federalize the PVP, to fold it into the Bureau of Reclamation, and she wants PG&E's to sell its water rights and infrastructure to this southern California water district as part of that takeover.
Big Central Valley water interests have targeted Eel River water for decades. They once pushed to add it to the State Water Project, and the Army Corps of Engineers proposed a massive dam that would have flooded Round Valley. Governor Ronald Reagan rejected that plan after fierce local and tribal opposition. But these zombie water-export schemes have a way of coming back.

Hear about what's going on.

There are red flags all over this shady water grab. I'm going to fight against it - to protect our Eel and Russian River water supplies from being federalized and taken over as part of this scheme. I urge everyone who cares about North Coast water, rivers, and fisheries to take this threat seriously - because it's coming directly from Secretary Rollins and the highest levels of the Trump administration.
I'm demanding answers from Secretary Rollins, Secretary Burghum, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, and anyone else involved in this southern California water-export scheme. We need to stand together to ensure that not one drop of our water is exported to southern California or the Central Valley.

To keep up with the work I am doing as your representative, please?subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on Bluesky,?Facebook,?Twitter/X,?Instagram, and Threads.

Thank you, and stay well,

Jared Huffman
Member of Congress

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