Close to Home: Investing in our tap water

Unlike our famous local wine, water pipes, valves and storage tanks do not age well with time. In fact, the infrastructure we use to deliver drinking water is similar to another famous local icon: the Golden Gate Bridge. Like the bridge, complex drinking water systems require continuous maintenance and large investments.

Sonoma Water is responsible for that regional water system. Sonoma Water provides water to Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma, Sonoma, Cotati, Windsor and the North Marin, Marin Municipal and Valley of the Moon water districts (collectively “water contractors”), which in turn distribute that water to more than 600,000 people. Most of this drinking water comes from the Russian River water supply system. Water from this system is stored in two major reservoirs, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, then pumped from large wells on the banks of the Russian River near Forestville, treated and delivered to communities through nearly 80 miles of underground pipes.

As a water ratepayer within one of these communities, you sustain this regional drinking water system every time you pay your water bill. Right now, Sonoma Water charges your local water provider approximately $0.003 (about one-third of a penny) a gallon, which costs a typical household about $25 a month. This is the lowest wholesale water rate in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While having the lowest water rate is a nice soundbite, the revenues collected are not adequately funding the ongoing needs of our drinking-water infrastructure. For this reason, Sonoma Water is proposing to increase its wholesale water rates by one-tenth of a cent per gallon to pay for critical upgrades. This new wholesale water rate could affect your household budget by between $2 and $3 a month, depending on where you live and how much water you use.

The new rate would help fund cathodic protection (to keep steel pipes from rusting), pump and valve replacements (to ensure reliable and efficient water delivery, reduce leaks and prevent failures), water treatment improvement projects (to ensure safe water quality) and water storage tank maintenance and recoats (to prolong the life of those big, expensive tanks that dot our landscape).

The new rates would also help pay for emergency response planning and training, reduce our impacts on endangered fish and increase investments in hazard mitigation and other capital infrastructure projects. This work is a priority of Sonoma Water as identified in our five-year strategic plan.

So, what now? The community is invited to attend a special Sonoma Water board meeting at 8:30 a.m. Monday in the Board of Supervisors chamber to learn more about the proposed wholesale water rates and infrastructure challenges. Sonoma Water staff will make budget presentations at each of the wholesale water contractor’s board and council meetings, which are open to community members who want to learn more. We also encourage you to take a tour of our Russian River water supply system and see the infrastructure for yourself.

For more information on Monday’s meeting and to sign up for a free tour, please visit sonomawater.org. Sonoma Water is honored to serve our community and to provide clean, reliable drinking water for generations to come.

Chris Coursey is chair of the Sonoma Water Board of Directors and represents Sonoma County’s 3rd Supervisorial District. James Gore is a director on the Sonoma Water board and represents Sonoma County’s 4th Supervisorial District.

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