Santa Rosa hires lobbyists for wastewater project

<p>Santa Rosa's Board of Public Utilities on Thursday hired a Washington D.C. lobbying firm to convince Congress to help fund $152 million in long-range wastewater disposal projects.</p><p>Deputy City Manager Greg Scoles said The Furman Group, which will be paid up to $160,000, will pursue funding that eventually could lead to the phased installation of a network of pipelines and storage reservoirs in west and south Santa Rosa.</p><p>The Phase I plan is to substitute the city's highly-treated wastewater for up to one billion gallons of potable water — most of it piped in from the Russian River — now being used for outdoor irrigation.</p><p>It's the first major recycling project since the city spent $205 million to build The Geysers wastewater-to-electricity system that now converts 4 billion gallons of wastewater a year into steam and electricity on behalf of the Calpine Corp., its partner in the public/private project.</p><p>The $152 million Phase I project, however, is only part of the city's plan. The city's eventual goal is to find a home for an additional 2.2 billion gallons of wastewater expected to be generated by residential, commercial and industrial growth over the next 20 to 30 years.</p><p>Water Resources Planner Jennifer Burke said Phase I includes thousands of acres of the city bordered in most part by Piner Road to the north, Todd Road to the south, Highway 101 to the east and Stony Point/Fulton roads to the west.</p><p>Burke said the plan is to target businesses, schools and large apartment and condominium projects with large landscaped areas that currently use hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons of city-supplied water a year for outdoor irrigation.</p><p>“Our plan is to convert those water customers over to recycled water,” she said. “It will be 100 percent offset of potable water for every drop of recycled water we use.”</p><p>Burke said wastewater has one major advantage over city-supplied water. “It's (wastewater) a relatively drought-proof supply that isn't subject to cutbacks,” she said.</p><p>The wastewater-for-water plan, developed over the past several years, comes at a critical time for the city.</p><p>The Sonoma County Water Agency recently announced it was withdrawing pursuit of additional water supplies from Lake Sonoma behind Warm Springs Dam, supplies Santa Rosa and a number of other Sonoma and Marin county cities had counted on to accommodate future growth.</p><p>Burke said the plan is to break Phase I into four construction stages, each involving the replacement of 250 million gallons of drinkable water with wastewater for outdoor use. The timing of each segment would depend on the rate of growth and it's impact on the demand for water.</p><p>The first stage should be completed within the next five years at a cost of around $36 million, she said. Construction on that portion will begin next year with a pilot project.</p><p>Burke said that initial step will involve 28 business, apartment and condominium projects along a nearly one-mile stretch of Stony Point Road between West College Avenue and Glenbrook Drive. Those properties now use approximately 45 million gallons a year for outdoor irrigation.</p><p>Burke said the project, which will be financed by grants from the state and Sonoma County Water Agency, will take up to five months to complete.</p>