TRANSCRIPT
Elise Cox: "Yesterday, we heard Congressman Jared Huffman describe the Two-Basin Solution he has been working on for the last six years. The Two-Basin Solution was proposed in response to the expected decommissioning of PG&E’s Potter Valley Project and the removal of the Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam. It attempts to address Mendocino County’s need for water with a continued diversion from the Eel River to the Russian River while addressing Humboldt County’s demand for a free-flowing Eel River. Chris Coulombe, the Republican candidate who is challenging Huffman, says he favors an approach that would not remove the Scott Dam. We give him equal time to talk about his position in today’s newscast.
"I asked Chris Coulombe what he would do to ensure that the people he represents get the water they need?"
Chris Coulombe: "I would do the opposite of what Jared Huffman is doing today. And instead of advocating for the destruction of our water source on behalf of PG&E, I would advocate for the increase in our water storage capacity by seeking federal funding from the Infrastructure Improvement Act, which allocated $550 billion, specifically for water infrastructure improvement, which we all know he, by his own statements, is not going after on behalf of our district.
"And so because he is actively seeking the destruction of our water supply, it seems pretty obvious that he is not looking to increase our water supply. So I would basically take this leadership role and use it as a way to bring together the parties that can fix our water supply. So it's of obvious to us, I believe at this point that PG&E does not have an interest in maintaining Scott Dam or Lake Pillsbury or Van Arsdale.
"So if that takes me to go out and find people that are ready to either take that over or to create a, you know, a district that manages that. There's a lot of municipalities that are very interested in keeping that. Lake County wants it to keep it there unanimously and vociferously opposed to the destruction of it. Mike, Representative Mike Thompson is adamantly opposed to the destruction of it. So there's there's a lot of support from elected positions to keep it. And I would bring them together so that we can create a solution that that benefits all parties the tribes, the counties, the cities, the citizens, the businesses, because we have a resource, we have an asset here that is helping us, that helped us create basically much of what was, let's say, Ukiah South. And I argue all the way down to Marin County because Marin County gets 25% of its water from Sonoma County, which gets its water from Mendocino County, which gets its water from Lake Pillsbury.
"And according to Jared Hoffman's own estimates, Lake Mendocino will go dry six years out of ten. At six years out of a decade, that you're not going to have year round water supply, that you probably won't have water in the Russian River, which means that your cost of living is going to go up and your ability to fight fires is going to go down. Your health opportunities are going to go down because if you're water rationing and you're not washing your clothes as often and not drinking as much water and you're not showering as often, that's a real problem.
"And I would argue that talking about the district, this is probably if not, I'd say this is the number one issue for all residents of Mendocino County. This is bigger than anything else that I've talked about today. If you don't have water, crime doesn't matter. If you don't have water, business doesn't matter. None of these things matter if you don't have water, which is I mean, this is probably the main reason top three reasons that I got involved in this race is because if this water disappears, it's gone. It's there's no one will bring back water to California. California has basically stated they're adamantly opposed to it. The only reason that we have a that we have Scott Dam being built now is because the voters approved it as a bond measure and as was brought up elsewhere. It took them a decade just to pull that money up.
"So where is the leadership that is making sure that we are getting funding here to address our problems on a macro scale? Then I'm talking specifically about water, but where else are we seeing leadership that is fighting for us to have the basic necessities? Because Mendocino County, which again is experiencing a -1.5% economic decline.
My background is in the DOD think tank realm, looking at macro picture geopolitics, geo strategy.
"If that lake goes away. Mendocino County, Ukiah. Upland and all surrounding municipalities will collapse. I guarantee you that. I give you my word it will collapse. Basically, Cloverdale North will collapse. It'll take longer for Healdsburg and South to collapse because they can still pull water for a time from Lake Sonoma. But this is issue number one and I am amazed at how many people in the district are not aware of the situation because there is not a there's not a lot of competition here for the media, for for journalism to broadcast this. And I believe not only do we have a journalism desert, but we also have a captured market, particularly with like the press Democrat, and how aligned it is politically with the power structure. And I don't think that everybody agrees with this."
