Sonoma County supervisors today will have their first chance to determine the future of a disputed county program that would oversee agricultural frost operations to better protect the Russian River's endangered fish.
Supporters say the proposal, crafted by county staff and grape growers, has been improved since its first public hearing last month and has earned some support from state and federal regulators.
But critics, including some environmentalists, say it is being rushed through with little of their input and without the changes they say are needed to better protect rare salmon and steelhead stocks.
Today's hearing is likely to feature a standoff between the two camps, with supporters calling for the program's approval and opponents saying it needs to go back to the drawing board.
For their part, farmers want a quick go-ahead so they can put the program in place for this year's frost season.
Many grape and fruit growers pull water out of the Russian River and its tributaries during cold spring nights to put protective coatings of ice on vines and trees. Those diversions stranded and killed endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead in 2008 and 2009, according to federal officials.
"If there are impacts that can be spelled out in a good water year, we can get out there before a bad one where you have diversions that could actually kill fish," said Pete Opatz, a viticulturist for Silverado Premium Properties who has represented growers in the effort.
But critics point to shortcomings in the plan and say the comparatively small public comment window - one month in a two-year-long process - requires that it be slowed down or shelved altogether.
"It's a moving target, and the ball's being hidden," said Stephen Fuller-Rowell of the Sonoma County Water Coalition. "It's not a good way to create county ordinances."
The proposal is the latest attempt by growers to craft a water-use program that wins the approval of state and federal officials. A recent revision sought to address one of their biggest concerns.
Previously, the county envisioned a permit-based program to oversee growers - an overreach of county authority with not enough legal consequences for bad actors, state regulators said.
The newest version calls simply for a "registration-based program," a change that all involved, including critics, said rightfully defers enforcement to state and federal authorities.
"It removed any pretense of the county actually regulating frost control," said David Hines, a water policy program coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A spokesman for the state Water Resources Control Board said his agency also was encouraged by the change. The agency's final say may not come until 2012, when it's expected to issue new frost protection rules.
Other concerns about the county proposal remain unaddressed, government officials and fish advocates said.
Chief among them is the public availability of data from as many as 100 stream flow gauges now envisioned as part of the program.
The data from at least eight of those gauges will be posted online in real time for the public to see, county staff said. But data from other gauges would be analyzed and reported annually by an independent, appointed science panel, then reviewed by wildlife officials and ultimately released to the state water board.
The raw data from those other gauges must still be made public, federal officials and fish advocates said.
"That has not made it into the final language anywhere," said Hines, the federal fisheries official.
"I think they could go a long way toward reassuring more skeptical members of the public just by trying to spell out some of this stuff," added Brian Johnson, a staff attorney with Trout Unlimited.
He said his group was "cautiously optimistic" about the proposal. "I'm glad the county and grape growers are putting this together. There are just a few important details that haven't been totally worked out."
Supervisors could endorse the program in a straw vote today before formalizing their approval in a vote set for next week.
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