PD Editorial: Keeping the Russian River pristine

After a winter storm in 1985, more than 750 million gallons of wastewater and raw sewage spilled into the Laguna de Santa Rosa and snaked its way down the Russian River.

This wasn't the first time that too much rain — or not enough rain — caused holding ponds at Santa Rosa's treatment plant to overflow, contaminating water supplies and enraging residents in downstream communities from Mirabel Park to Jenner.

But this one, dubbed the Big Spill, became the catalyst for an 18-year, $205 million plumbing project that rerouted wastewater from the Russian River to The Geysers, where it's injected into the ground to recharge steam fields that produce much of the region's electricity.

Santa Rosa acted grudgingly, spurred on by the threat of a state-imposed building moratorium.

Finding an alternative to discharging treated wastewater into the Laguna and letting the river flush it into the ocean wasn't easy.

Some growers blanched at the notion of irrigating with wastewater, and a pipeline to the ocean proved politically infeasible. The 41-mile Geysers pipeline was an engineering challenge, and the project was costly, saddling residents in Santa Rosa and three other cities that rely on the Laguna plant with some of the biggest sewer treatment bills in the state. Hefty hook-up fees contribute to the high cost of housing.

Despite the political and logistical obstacles, the investment has paid off. Santa Rosa's wastewater discharges into the Russian River are near zero. Some years, there are none.

Much has been done to improve water quality in the Russian River over the past three decades, but the work isn't finished.

Human waste and animal waste still befoul the river, so state water quality regulators are targeting faulty sewage treatment systems, failing septic tanks and other sources of contamination, much of it originating in the communities most directly affected by Santa Rosa's sewage spills of the past.

Under the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board's draft action plan, landowners along the lower river could face special inspection and monitoring requirements. They also could be liable for potentially costly repairs.

'The river has problems,' water board member William Massey, who lives in Forestville, told Staff Writer Mary Callahan. 'It's not tremendous damage. It's not a tremendous problem. But it's a problem, and it's one that's caused by human beings.'

Past efforts to address the problems have foundered amid warnings that many river-area residents can't afford the costs associated with upgrading sewer treatment and septic systems. This time, however, the state is under a federal mandate to find new strategies to improve water quality in streams such as the Russian River where existing regulations have proven inadequate.

It may not be easy, and it probably won't be cheap. But, as Santa Rosa learned after the Big Spill, clean water is a good investment.

Public workshops on the draft plan are scheduled Sept. 22 in Monte Rio, Sept. 23 in Ukiah and Sept. 24 in Santa Rosa. More information is available at http://bit.ly/1FdPh7x.