Nickname: masobieraj
Author feed: masobieraj RSS Feed

Latest entries

Sonoma County Gazette, August 2008

Steelhead Beach

By Brenda Adelman

The name of the park, Steelhead Beach, conjures up visions of fishermen crowding the beaches in anticipation of their catch.  Steelhead runs were legend on the Russian River and are all but gone now.  And so are most of the fishermen.  No longer do you see the river crowded with men (and some women) in hip boots, throwing their long lines into the running waters, hoping to snag a beautiful fish that they knew were just waiting for them.  Fish stories were abundant prior to the 1990’s at King’s Bait and Tackle, and Pat’s Restaurant nearby.  But times have changed.

How ironic.  For years fishermen and recreationists clamored for more public river access, since about 90% of the access is privately owned.  Yet about two years after the park opened (around 1997), Steelhead trout populations were declared threatened by the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS).  That happened about the same time that Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park grew by leaps and bounds, along with their water demands and their wastewater discharge needs, and new wineries burgeoned like mushrooms.

| post

Sonoma County Gazette, May 2008

Santa Rosa’s river discharge plans just keep coming…..

By Brenda Adelman

Santa Rosa has come a long way since we first started tracking their wastewater discharge plans after the 800 million gallon sewage spill in 1985, 23 years ago.  For about twelve years after that illegal dump, they ignored all pleas to diversify their system, increase conservation, repair leaky collection pipes, and greatly cut back on river discharges.  Instead, they pursued numerous river discharge options that would allow them to greatly increase their dumping of treated sewage into the Russian River.

Then around 1997 two big events occurred.  Three fish species were listed on the Federal Endangered Species List and Coho was listed on the State list. The Regional Water Board subsequently developed new water quality regulations that would improve conditions for the fish. The other major event, occurring at the time when Santa Rosa was about to embark on a plan to discharge treated sewage into the river at a rate of 20% instead of 5%, a consortium of Geysers steam field companies offered Santa Rosa a very attractive deal to send their wastewater 41 miles up the hill so they could expand steam-field operations, a project that would make Santa Rosa’s wastewater disposal method unique in the nation and later became particularly noteworthy because of the subsequent energy crisis.

| post

Sonoma County Gazette, April 2008

Santa Rosa Hearing on River Discharge

By Brenda Adelman

On Thursday, April 3, 2008, about 75 people attended the City of Santa Rosa’s only hearing on their direct river discharge project-environmental impact report (EIR).  About 25 people spoke.  Since the document is over 5000 pages and highly complex, most pleaded with City officials to expand the public comment period by 30 days and to hold another hearing closer to the end of the comment period.

At the time, the Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities gave no response and left everyone with the impression that their pleas fell on deaf ears.  Consultants emphasized that the comment period is 9 days more than the minimum required by law (45 days).  This was hardly reassuring, since the City could have expanded the comment period by two or three months if they wanted.  We are grateful that, just as this paper’s publication deadline approached, the City announced that they were offering a two-week extension for comments on the EIR to May 20th.  While still not adequate, it is welcome nonetheless.

| post

Sonoma County Gazette, March 2008, #2

Water and Wastewater Views of 5th District Candidates

By Brenda Adelman
(This is the second article in a two part series that explores Fifth District candidates’ positions on important West County water and wastewater issues.  This month’s article completes the review of candidate responses and also makes recommendations.)

Seven Fifth District Candidates, who had declared their candidacy by mid-January were invited to respond to questions focused on West County water and wastewater issues.  Four candidates submitted responses: Rue Furch, Maddy Hirshfield, Tom Lynch, and Dan Kahane.  We thank these candidates for taking the time to respond to our long questionnaire.

| post

Sonoma County Gazette, March 2008

Supervisors Certify Occidental Pipeline EIR

By Brenda Adelman

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, acting as Directors of the Occidental County Sanitation District (OCSD), recently certified a Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) for a wastewater pipeline project that would hook up Occidental and Camp Meeker to the Russian River County Sanitation District.  This SEIR had recently been declared “inadequate” by the lead agency, Camp Meeker Recreation and Park District.

To justify this decision, overriding the legitimate ruling of the “lead” agency, the County’s Resolution stated, “District staff want to emphasize that the District does not intend to pursue the project identified in the Final SEIR, and recommend certification to stop the District and its ratepayers from receiving additional fines.” ($1000 a day beginning February 1st)  The Supervisors’ latest vote is a testament to the County’s failure to resolve West County wastewater issues since 1995, when the Sonoma County Water Agency took over management of County sanitation districts.

| post

Sonoma County Gazette, February 2008

5th District Candidates Respond to Water/Wastewater Questionnaire

By Brenda Adelman

(This is the first in a two part series that will explore the candidates’ positions on some important West County  water and wastewater issues.  This month’s article summarizes candidate responses on water issues and March’s article will complete the review, critique responses, and make recommendations.)  Our goal is to provide information as objectively as possible to help voters decide whom they want as 5th District Supervisor.

Last month Russian River Watershed Protection Committee developed two pages of complex questions concerning Fifth District surface water and wastewater issues.  We sent copies of the questionnaire to seven active candidates including Rue Furch, Maddy Hirshfield, Tom Lynch, Dan Kahane, Jim Maresca, Guy Smith, and Eddie Alvarez. But for Eddie, who had had a death in the family and could not make it, these were the same people who took part in the January candidate’s forum in Sebastopol. All but Guy Smith committed to answering the questions by the due date of Feb. 6th, but Jim and Eddie did not follow through.  (Thanks to the four who did respond.  We know it was a major effort on your part and we are grateful that you took the time.)

| post