SSU professor measures cost of Russian River restrictions

Restricting the use of Russian River water for frost protection comes at a price, but could new limits cost the state economy $2 billion a year?

Yes, say wine industry supporters, pointing to a private study conducted by a Sonoma State University professor.

Nonsense, say environmentalists. They contend, as does a spokesman for the state Water Quality Control Board, that faulty assumptions led to the study's wrong-headed conclusions.

The study was cited Tuesday at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors as official justification for developing a county frost program.

John Dyson, owner of Healdsburg's Williams Selyem winery, said he paid for the study because "I became concerned that there wasn't much attention paid by the state to the economic impact." He declined to say how much the report cost, saying he first wanted the author's permission.

The study's author, SSU economics department chairman Robert Eyler, found that California would take a $2 billion hit and lose 8,000 jobs if total grape tonnage in Sonoma and Mendocino counties dipped 10 percent from new limits on frost protection.

Dyson, a former New York City deputy mayor who helped created the "I Love New York" campaign, maintained Tuesday that the 10 percent assumption is reasonable based on last winter's draft rules, which he said could "prohibit all use" of water diverted for frost protection.

But William Rukeyser, spokesman for the water board, said the staff never proposed banning all diversions for frost protection. Also, he said, board Chairman Charles Hoppin told audience members last winter that the state's intent is to protect both growers and endangered fish.

"I didn't see any of those realities reflected in the study," Rukeyser said.

Brian Johnson, a staff attorney for Trout Unlimited, said the study assumes crop losses far greater than are likely.

"I feel like it would really help if people on both sides of the frost issue could get over the-sky-is-falling rhetoric for a little while," Johnson said.

Rukeyser said water diversions for frost protection have been regulated on the Napa River for decades without creating "desolation and destruction" for the wine industry there.

But Pete Opatz, a viticulturist and farm leader, suggested the region's fishing and timber industries got "run over" by the Endangered Species Act, the same law federal officials are citing to limit water for frost protection.

"Ask them how it worked out," Opatz said.