-
Unknown A
I just look at the irony of running little ag towns that feed us dry, destroying these agricultural communities by taking a dam out and then just south where Gavin Newsom lives, where there's maybe more money, more prominence, you're close to the Bay Area, destroying ranchers, flooding them out to build a new dam that will have much less water storage capacity.
-
Unknown B
Is the American west being lost to government overreach and organized crime? My name is James Lee and you're watching beyond the headlines on Breaking Points. For generations, the American west has stood for freedom and self reliance. But today ranchers, farmers and small communities are facing mounting threats. Cartel run cannabis farms on public land, water rights being stripped away, and policies that claim to protect the environment but end up pushing rural families to the brink. One journalist has been documenting this crisis firsthand, Keely Covello, and she joins us here today on Breaking Points. Keely, thank you so much for your time today.
-
Unknown A
Thank you so much for having me, James. Really appreciate you sharing your platform with these stories.
-
Unknown B
Of course. And I want to start with one of the big stories that you've covered recently, which is the removal of the Potter Valley Project, which is a century old dam system that's provided water to farmers, ranchers and you know, many communities who have been there for generations in Southern California. So for people who haven't followed the story, and I have an inkling that many people haven't heard of this story, can you, can you kind of explain what's happening and why it's such a big deal?
-
Unknown A
Absolutely. So, and I don't think many of your listeners will have heard about this story because even people right next door to us in Mendocino county haven't heard about this story. So essentially, like you said, this is a century old dam system, it's a hydroelectric plant, but it's also a very valuable water supply and water storage system in this part of Northern California, Mendocino county, which is about two and a half, three hours north of San Francisco, the Potter Valley Project, as it's called. There's two dams involved. They're built on the Eel river and they divert about 2% of the eel river to the Russian river. And that provides water for folks from Potter Valley all the way to Nevada. So about 600,000 people get water from the Potter Valley Project. It's a very valuable piece of infrastructure. And right now it's in the process of being decommissioned and destroyed, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, most likely footed at least in large part by the taxpayer.
-
Unknown A
And it will leave all of These communities without a key water, a water source. And again, this is a very fire prone area. This is a very drought prone area. So it's just a terrible thing that's happening that truly no one is talking about. Even with Gavin Newsom in the news, with California water in the news, I feel like this story has been completely missed.
-
Unknown B
And why are they shutting it down?
-
Unknown A
Great question. So the company that runs it is Pacific Gas and Electric. They have the license to manage the Potter Valley project from ferc, which is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, I believe is what it stands for. It's a federal group because it's a hydroelectric plant. They manage the license. This is a low income area. Full disclosure, I'm from this community. So it's a low income area. It's mostly ranches and farms. It's a very agricultural, very rural, low population. So it's, you know, there's not a lot of profit in this hydroelectric plant. So PG&E, when the lease renewal came up, they decided to surrender the lease. And because they no longer want to manage it, they're going to spend money to destroy it and take it down. There has been some activist interest in removing the dam because it's thought that this might improve some fish habitat for salmon.
-
Unknown A
That's very debated. I was actually just speaking with a Lake county Supervisor this morning, E.J. crandall, who's also a tribal leader there. He was explaining to me that once this dam is removed, it won't provide the cold water that salmon need to spawn in this river. So it's, it's not clear that this will actually improve fish habitat. But even if it does, we have 600,000 people who rely on it. So it's a, it's an interesting choice to prioritize fish over so many people, wildlife. There's two lakes that will be removed. So all that to say PGE is relinquishing their, their license. But no one in the state has tried to take over this dam, seeing it as critical infrastructure in a state that needs not less water storage. So the march toward destroying this dam is just continuing with no one stopping it, including our representative, Jared Huffman and our governor and his administration, Gavin Newsom.
-
Unknown B
The one thing I want to pick up on too that you said is that they're shutting it down because they say, you know, a, you're talking about the environmental impact. But two or the second thing is that they're saying it's not profitable. So I'm curious to know your perspective on whether or not these kinds of you know, I. PG and E, I think it's like a public private partnership type of thing that run massive infrastructure. And that's really critical for the state. Should profit be, you know, the sole focus of these kinds of, you know, decisions?
-
Unknown A
I agree with you. Yeah. And especially when you account for the millions of dollars that taxpayers are going to spend to take this dam out and the loss of agriculture. This is a key agricultural area. Everybody knows about Sonoma County. It's one of our most iconic vacation destinations in the United States. Sonoma does rely on this water, which even people in Sonoma, I don't think are fully aware what is happening. So you're right. Profit is really just one component here. PGE is state regulated. There's been a lot of corruption in PGE's past. They were found guilty of manslaughter, I think 84 counts or something. I'd have to look up the exact number. But in the camp fire in 2018, the paradise fire, they've failed to maintain their infrastructure in this part of the state. And people have died. People have suffered the consequences of that.
-
Unknown A
So, you know, they haven't paid back all of the victims. They haven't made them whole. But they do have a history of paying large bonuses to their executives and large donations to politicians in our state, from Gavin Newsom to Jared Huffman. So it's interesting to see where they decide to allocate their funds. And furthermore, you know, the Infrastructure act that was passed in the last couple of years designated $50 billion to improving water infrastructure in the United States. But no one has tried to seek that funding because the hydroelectric plant has been offline for a couple of years. It does need some maintenance. But no one's tried to seek funding to improve that infrastructure. They're simply choosing to use our money to destroy it and to destroy the communities that rely on it.
-
Unknown B
Yeah, you mentioned that there's some activists kind of getting more involved in this situation. What's been the reaction from the local community in shutting this down? Are they concerned? What kind of impact is this going to have on the people who live there, whether they be farmers, ranchers, or just, you know, regular folks who live in the area?
-
Unknown A
Yeah, the community is terrified. I think a lot of people are just hoping it doesn't happen. But this is a low income area. People go to work. There was a meeting this morning, PG&E held to go over the plan to take down this dam. I was able to catch some of it, most of it, but, you know, it was held at 10am Most people are working in this community. This is a blue collar community. That's the time that they chose to host this meeting to discuss the future of all these folks. So there's great consternation in the community. Supervisor Crandall this morning was telling me that in the 2018 Mendo Complex fire that Lake Pillsbury, which is a product of Scott Dam and part of the Potter Valley Project, is the reason that most of Lake county was able to be saved. Why we still have these towns is because the fire department, Cal Fire was able to get water from Lake Pillsbury.
-
Unknown A
So this is a very fire prone region. Decimating our lakes is a scary thought for those of us who have been evacuated over and over again. As I have been in my town, as everyone in the community has experience with at this point.
-
Unknown B
Yeah, I'm curious, like your thoughts because I know a lot of your reporting does focus on these kind of government policies, dam removals, land restrictions and to give the other side a little bit of air time. And I want your reaction to this. But the environmental groups, they're saying that these policies are necessary to repair things like the overdevelopment of the region or deforestation or that this water use is unsustainable. Where do you see the balance between the point of view of the conservationalists versus, you know, protecting the needs of the local community?
-
Unknown A
I think that's always important to balance. Right. We're in these resource dependent communities. We care very much about our natural resources. These are people who've chosen to live far from civilization because they want to enjoy those resources. It's part of our life and our culture. So of course it's important. Of course we want fish and we want habitat for wildlife and all of these things. My argument is just that there's no proof that removing these dams will be a net benefit for the environment. We have a fish ladder, I believe on Scott Dam, on Van Arsdale Dam, we could build a fish ladder. We could improve that fish ladder. That's been very effective at other dam sites. We, the voters of California, voted to build a lot more water infrastructure in the state. I believe in 2014. There has not been any major water projects built since we voted for that, since we designated funds to do that.
-
Unknown A
So clearly the voter want more water storage. We want to have a better water system. And even down in Marin county where our governor happens to live, some of this water from the Potter Valley Project benefits Marin county and they are looking ahead to a water shortage and they're talking about one of Their solutions that's on the table is flooding out Hicks Valley ranchers who live there to build the Sulajuly Dam. So, you know, that's just one of the options on the table. But I just look at the irony of running little ag towns that feed us dry, destroying these agricultural communities by taking a dam out, and then just south, where Gavin Newsom lives, where there's maybe more money, more prominence, you're close to the Bay Area, destroying ranchers, flooding them out to build a new dam that will have much less water storage capacity.
-
Unknown A
So I think there's ways to balance nature with the dam system. You know, even in our oral history and our memory of the area, Even in the 40s and 50s, the salmon were running. There's other factors, not the dam that ended the salmon run. From global overfishing issues to severe floods in the area, there are other things that we could do in our rivers to improve habitat, not destroying communities, taking out valuable water storage. Because the needs of citizens do have to be balanced. People are part of nature, too. And even people in cities eat food. And this is where it comes from.
-
Unknown B
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense to me. And to kind of react to your point about all these projects, the funding that goes into all these projects that. That are supposedly or that are. That are supposed to happen. One of the big issues I see in California, as a resident of California, is that there's so much money being allocated towards projects that sound really good, but there's no actual accountability in terms of that project actually being completed. And then there's a lot of opportunity in that middle area for various people to kind of dip their hand in the cookie jar and kind of take out the money and pretend that they're doing work, but then nothing ever gets done. I think that's something that really needs to change in California as far as getting the state back on track, specifically with accountability. Before I let you go, I do want to touch on another story that caught my eye.
-
Unknown B
And I know you did a documentary on this, which is the murder of this cattle rancher in Northern California, and that his story, you know, it's still unsolved. And so I'm curious, you know, if you want to go into that a little bit, what you found there, and help us contextualize why that story, you found that to be so important to cover.
-
Unknown A
Yeah. And it actually does connect a little bit to this bigger story about water in Northern California. So again, Mendocino county referenced this a little bit at the top. One of the issues that we're fac. In many parts of the west, our black market cannabis grows on our public lands. That's been part of the culture. Cannabis production has been part of the culture in Mendocino County, Humboldt County, Lake county, that area, Trinity, for a long time.
-
Unknown B
Where?
-
Unknown A
The Emerald Triangle. That's part of the reality of living in Northern California. Kind of started in the 60s, 70s with the hippie movement and it's progressed since. But post legalization, we haven't seen a great improvement in terms of law abiding folks on the land. We've actually seen, you know, some of these more extreme criminal groups, not the original growers, but foreign cartels or just very aggressive black market growers who've actually amped up what they're doing, as the little guys who try to go legal are often sort of forced out of the market because of the extreme regulation. Typical California, you know, they legalize something and then they regulate it to death. So that's what a lot of these growers have told me, is that they're out of business because of that. So we always, you know, part of the culture of Mendocino county, the part that I grew up in, is ranching.
-
Unknown A
That's my background, that's the world that I knew. But we also have this other side, and we've always coexisted pretty well. But in 2021, an elderly rancher named Richard Drury was murdered outside of his ranch. He was killed. He's 85 years old and he was killed in his car with a single gunshot wound to the head. And it was just this horrific unsolved murder that really frightened my community because we felt that it looked like a cartel hit. That's what everyone believed. That's just what we assumed because of where he lived and because of some of these issues that we're seeing in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. So it hadn't had any progress. It went about three years with no answers. And so my sister and I, we, we've made a few documentaries. We decided to try to go home and, and solve this case or at least look into it, try to find some answers for our community.
-
Unknown A
So we did that, we made a short documentary. And, you know, there haven't been any arrests. You're right. It's still an open case, but I think we have a compelling result. People have to watch it and see for themselves. But what is suggested at the end of the film by some folks close to the case is that this may have been a murder not by the cartel, but by a black market cannabis grower who was angry at Mr. Drury because of a water agreement. And I spoke with a cowgirl out there named Jenny who is a badass and she works up in these mountains and she's used to all the danger. And she told me water is going to be your motive for a lot of murders in the years ahead because it's scarce, because you have criminals and because our government doesn't care. Matt Kendall, the sheriff in Mendocino county, told me Gavin Newsom has never returned his phone calls.
-
Unknown A
So this is a very lawless place without any outside help. And it's almost like the state, by taking out a key water source, is really doubling down on the dangers that these rural folks face in Mendocino and Humboldt County.
-
Unknown B
Totally agree. I think a lot of these issues, water rights, you know, rural crime, cartels that you mentioned, they get almost zero coverage in the big media outlets. So please, I want you to let your. I want to. What am I trying to say here, sir? Please let the audience know where they can follow you.
-
Unknown A
Oh, well, you can follow me @America on one, unwon on Instagram, all the social channels. That's where I write and report. You can stream that short documentary for free at my website. That's where you can find me.
-
Unknown B
Well, thank you so much, Keely. I think this has been really eye opening for hopefully for me and hopefully a lot of other people as well. So appreciate your time today.
-
Unknown A
Thank you, James. Thank you for what you do and again for sharing your platform with these stories. Appreciate you.
-
Unknown B
That is it for me this week. If you want more stories that the mainstream media is unwilling to tell, please check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel 5149 with James Lee. The link will be in the description below. And as always, I appreciate your time and keep on tuning into Breaking Points.