Dam, girl.

The Eel River is set to become one of the longest free-flowing rivers in the United States after a five-year fight over what to do with dams on the river, spearheaded by California native tribes.

Spanning five counties and linking Humboldt to regional and statewide water resources, the massive waterway traces 200 miles north of Mendocino National Forest and empties into the Pacific Ocean.

It’s also a sacred resource of the Wiyot Tribe with deep cultural connections to both the river and its fisheries, according to Humboldt’s city website. In fact, 398 river miles are designated as recreational, scenic, or wild under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Back in the 1900s, two dams were constructed, Cape Horn and Scott, and angered local tribes as they were no longer able to provide food for themselves given that both dams blocked fish from reaching hundreds of miles of upstream habitat.

But recently, The Potter Valley project, which includes two dams on the river, proved to be a very costly headache as utility giant PG&E discovered a huge issue after a routine inspection of the hydroelectric dam.

One of its necessary power generation systems that’s over 100 years old, needed an expensive fix that would have costed the utility company up to $15 million. Since it only generates enough electricity for about 750 homes, the American energy business is looking to get rid of it.

According to KQED, there were no takers for the pricey hydroelectric system so PG&E submitted an application to the federal government to shut down the project — which would close down the dams and restore the Eel River to its free-flowing former glory.

Recently, a slew of government agencies, environmental groups, tribes and PG&E all agreed on a fix after five years of fighting — the Two Basin Solution.

If it goes through, the planned removal would happen in the 2030s — making Native American tribes, environmental groups and local farmers very happy.

By returning to free-flow, the new river access would allow the tribes to once again catch salmon, Pacific lamprey, freshwater clams, steelhead and trout. 

“We need our free-flowing water,” Nicole Whipple, member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes based in Covelo, told the outlet. Whipple’s tribe is located in a remote section of Northern Mendocino County where for centuries, they were “very wealthy in their food and resources” because of the Eel River.

The new management agency was born called The Eel Russian Project Authority (ERPA) who would oversee closing of the dams and local fish would gain access to hundreds of miles of a new habitat in the headwaters.

ERPA will become a five-member board where Round Valley Indian Tribes would also sit alongside Sonoma Water, the County of Sonoma and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission.

“It’s really important for our indigenous people to be connected to our culture. And so for us to be well and to be supported, we need our culture back,” Whipple told the site.

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