Dry Creek Valley pipeline debated

It's just too easy to describe a pipeline through Dry Creek Valley conveying water from Lake Sonoma to the Russian River as nothing more than a pipe dream.

But that's what some claim it is.

There's no route to trace on a map of Dry Creek Valley. And no blueprints available that detail pipe sizes or the complexity of pumping stations necessary for increasing by one-third the amount of water proposed to be sucked out from behind Warm Springs Dam.

Yet the Dry Creek Valley pipeline will become part of an environmental impact study because some experts view it as a way to comply with federal endangered species protection for salmon in Dry Creek.

Or, more appropriately, a way around it if Dry Creek is left to the fish and Lake Sonoma water shuttles down the pipeline.

Debate has opened among county officials, north county residents and environmentalists over whether a pipeline siphoning water from Lake Sonoma and sending it to the collector ponds near the Wohler Bridge is an idea worth pursuing. That's a stretch of about two dozen miles if the pipeline follows a likely course along Dry Creek Road and Westside Road.

Currently, the idea of a pipeline exists only in the dreams of engineers and planners in the Sonoma County Water Agency who view it as one of several alternatives to be examined in a long-delayed environmental impact report.

The study on the north county water project is aimed at figuring out how to increase from 75,000 to 101,000 acre-feet the amount of water the agency can extract from Lake Sonoma for about 600,000 customers in Sonoma and northern Marin counties.

Already, the pipeline is the center of a debate among supervisors over whether it should be analyzed at the level of being a program (a concept worth more study) or a project (a site-specific study).

The difference is important because, as a project, the pipeline achieves greater priority that will extend the review process by several years.

West county Supervisor Mike Reilly thinks a Dry Creek Valley pipeline is inevitable. So, the sooner the public gets a look at the pipeline, the better.

"It is becoming obvious that we will need some sort of conveyance to get water down Dry Creek," Reilly said. "Why can't we send a clear message on the pipeline? I don't see any other way to do it."

But north county Supervisor Paul Kelley, who represents the valley, said it's too soon to say the pipeline is the only solution.

"My preference is to not rule out the alternatives," Kelley said. Those alternatives include: salmon habitat restoration that satisfies federal endangered species protection guidelines, thus allowing more Lake Sonoma water in Dry Creek; storing more water in aquifers; increasing the amount of ground water; and raising the level of Coyote Dam so more water can be drawn out of Lake Mendocino.

Water Agency engineers and planners admit they are struggling with a draft environmental impact report on what's properly called the Water Supply, Transmission and Reliability Project.

A previous effort to draft an environmental impact report on this project started in 1998, but was derailed by a lawsuit in 2003, prompting the Water Agency to start over.

Estimates of future water needs from contractors aren't all in yet, as most cities and Sonoma County are in the process of updating their general plans, so water needs aren't resolved. So far, only Santa Rosa, Cotati, the Valley of the Moon and northern Marin County have detailed their future water needs.

"We need to document that contractors have need for added water," said Erica Phelps, the Water Agency's environmental resources coordinator.

Phelps said there are also "delays and constraints" in completing the environmental review because the National Marine Fisheries Services has not delivered its opinion on how Dry Creek flows will affect endangered fish.

In addition, county supervisors are asking state authorities for permission to get more water from upstream dams, which could affect the size and scope of this pipeline.

At the moment, the state is reluctant to grant it unless Sonoma County can demonstrate that conservation measures are being undertaken and unless it can show more water won't damage habitat of endangered fish.

Water Agency officials recently informed county supervisors that a draft report won't be complete until June and a final version won't be ready for their consideration until June 2009.

"It takes a very long time to implement a water project," said Amy Harris Mai, senior environmental specialist with the Water Agency.

You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.