Gov. Gavin Newsom's California cut the water off to ranchers with-out warning

 “We just found out we're not going to be able to get any irrigation water, which shuts us down as ranchers”

“We're just kind of looking at just having to go out of business, you know, because that's what we do here is raise cattle. And if we don't have any water, that's going to be taken away from us. We’ll go dry.”

Ranchers in California's Potter Valley are facing the sudden shutdown of their irrigation water supply because of the decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project by PG&E.

Amove attributed to the environmental priorities of Newsom & other Democrat officials that favor fish habitat restoration instead of residents and ranchers in rural california.

Potter Valley ranchers were hit with no warning this week when Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) depleted Lake Pillsbury to critically low levels, effectively cutting off irrigation water without federal approval.

PG&E's recently submitted a plan to dismantle the century-old Potter Valley Project, including the removal of Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, which would erase Lake Pillsbury entirely and redirect the Eel River's flow away from diversions that supply the Russian River basin.

This decommissioning, greenlit under Governor Newsom, focuses on salmon restoration over the needs of thousands of residents and agricultural operations.

Ranchers like those in Potter Valley, who depend on the project's tunnels to irrigate pastures for cattle grazing, described the impact as devastating.

Without water, their land turns barren, stripping away their ability to keep operating on farms that have supported families for generations.

The move lines up policies pushed by Newsom and Congressman Jared Huffman, who have championed dam removals to "free" rivers for fish migration, often at the expense of human communities. 

The water shortage will impact more than Potter Valley, possibly impacting the water supply for 600,000 people downstream in Mendocino and Sonoma counties, where the Russian River supplies drinking water and agriculture.