RRWPC began its existence through involvement with Guerneville sewer issues in 1980. The group originally formed under the name River Citizens Sewer Committee. Our name was changed to Russian River Watershed Protection Committee in 1992 to reflect our broader concerns about the Russian River.
In 1985, the massive, 800 million gallon illegal dump of Santa Rosa's secondarily treated wastewater caused a huge furor in the community.
We have tracked Santa Rosa wastewater issues ever since and have also branched out to other related issues that concern the Russian River including water supply, general plan policies, water diversions, flooding, water quality, Regional Water Quality Control Board waste discharge requirements, Endangered Species Act issues, toxic issues, agricultural and urban irrigation issues, and much more.
We continue to work on and with many ad hoc committees, councils, groups, and individuals concerning these issues. We study critical documents, write commentaries, attend hearings and provide testimony. We write regularly for the West County Gazette and we have also contributed articles to numerous publications including the Press Democrat, Sonoma West Times and News, and the Russian River Times. We recently gave extensive commentaries on the Water Resources Element of the Sonoma County General Plan, the 303(d) listing of impaired water bodies process of the Regional and State Water Boards, the Russian River County Sanitation District treatment plant expansion and Santa Rosa Incremental Recycled Water Plan.
We attend, and often report on, meetings of the Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities, the Santa Rosa City Council, the Board of Supervisors, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and State Water Resources Board, the Sonoma County Planning Commission, the Eel-Russian River Commission, etc. We have served on many committees including the Russian River Task Force, the State Parks Citizens Advisory Committee, the 1988 Citizens Advisory Committee for the Sonoma County General Plan. We are currently very actively involved with the Sonoma County Water Coalition.
We are grateful to have been honored with many awards for our work. Some of our awards include Environmentalist of the Year Award in 1988, two awards of appreciation from the Russian River Chamber of Commerce (in different years), we were honored by the Russian River Watershed Council, chosen as one of the 50 Most Influential People of the Century by the Press Democrat in 2000, and recently, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sierra Club and Sonoma County Conservation Council (2008), and finally the Kate Fraga award from Sonoma County Conservation Action (2008).
The Russian River Watershed Protection Committee is a nonprofit corporation organized to work in the public interest on river protection issues. We have been in existence since 1980. We have 501 (c) (4) tax status. Our Board of Directors consists of five members who work primarily on a volunteer basis. We have no formal office or staff. We have a mailing list of about 1400 names to whom we distribute mailers every other month giving updates on the current issues affecting the Russian River. For information contact RRWPC Chair, Brenda Adelman at P.O. Box 501, Guerneville, CA 95446-0501, or email us at rrwpc@comcast.net
