Sonoma County supervisors drop long-studied water plan
Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 6:05 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 6:05 p.m.
Signaling an historic reversal of a two -decade water policy, Sonoma County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to withdraw an application to the state for more Russian River water, saying big pipelines no longer make sense because of changing economic and evironmental conditions.
Supervisors listened to almost two hours of testimony from city officials, civic leaders and environmental group representatives before quickly deciding to drop their long-standing request to increase the water draw from the river by about a third.
“The bottom line is that...the project is unaffordable, unattainable and unreasonable to pursue,” said south county Supervisor Mike Kerns.
Supervisors’ approved a Water Agency proposal to drop an application to state regulators to increase the take of river water from 75,000 to 101,000 acre feet of water. They said the $600 million price tag for the water delivery system would be too big for ratepayers to bear and federal restrictions on Dry Creek fish habitat have created roadblocks for using it as a water conduit from Lake Sonoma.
However, city officials from Santa Rosa and the North Marin Water District, insisted during testimony Tuesday that abandoning the project would lead to cities losing water rights claims to the Russian River essential to their long-term planning. They were unsuccessful Monday in obtaining a court injunction preventing a board decision after Tuesday’s hearing.
Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin, who is also co-chair of an advisory committee of cities contracting with the Water Agency, said “all our General Plans are based on Water Agency contracts” that stipulate county pursuit of the 101,000 acre foot allotment.
“Don’t withdraw or modify the request,” she said.
Chris DeGabriele, general manager of the North Marin Water District and chairman of the advisory committee's engineers, said the supervisors’ “unilateral action may be a breach of contract.”
“We need to agree on what the next plan is before ending the water project that we have been working on for 20 years,” he said.
However, board chairman Paul Kelley said the panel had to make “a painful, but necessary, decision.”
Kelley, whose north county district includes the lake and the upper reaches of Dry Creek and Russian River, said the county faces loss of all water rights if it can’t demonstrate compliance with a federal biological opinion on restoring endangered fish habitat. The Water Agency is under a Sept. 24 deadline to present compliance plans.
“Simply put, the question is whether we should secure what we have by delaying asking for more,” Kelley said.
Several leaders of business organizations testified they worried that a change in policy may impair the ability of businesses to grow in the future.
Sue Nelson of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce said lack of anticipated water supplies in documents aimed at planning for 2030 “will have adverse impacts on our communities in the future.”
Lisa Schaffner, former Healdsburg mayor and executive director of Sonoma County Alliance, said the policy reversal will force business to “be more creative in using water.”
County supervisors acknowledged that the policy reversal would upset officials in cities that have been enacting building codes, water conservation measures and planning documents in anticipation of the larger water supply.
The Water Agency provides water to about 600,000 residents in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Windsor, Sonoma, Forestville and northern Marin County. Most of the unincorporated county relies on wells, as does Sebastopol. Healdsburg owns its own municipal water system.
Environmental group leaders such as David Keller of the Friends of the Eel River and Brenda Adelman of the Russian River Watershed Committee said it was one of the first times that environmentalists were in agreement with a Water Agency proposal. They called for immediate board action and dismissed calls by city officials for more time to discuss the issue.
“We don't have time for another 15 years of collaboration,” Adelman said. “The more collaboration you have, the less opportunity you have for meaningful action. There is no use pretending that there is 101,000 acre feet of water available.”
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