Author

September, 2011
Dear RRWPC Supporter:

We have a great deal of news to share with you this month and will jump right in to inform you about our current activities.

Water Agency Directors approve Estuary Project…..
The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) Board of Directors (County Supervisors) approved the Estuary Project on August 16, 2011. They allowed only 18 days for citizens to study the lengthy Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) before certification. On August 15, 2011, RRWPC submitted a 21-page letter expressing our concerns. Supervisors also received about ten other letters on the day before the meeting. SCWA provided no formal response to comments, as they were not legally required to do so.
The long and short of it was that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) staff literally threatened Supervisors with being in violation of the Endangered Species Act if they did not certify the EIR and approve the project. They implied sanctions would be taken against anyone who opposed this project. Two Supervisors expressed strong reservations (Shirley Zane and Mike McGuire) about approving the project without a more thorough review of comments received right before the meeting. By certifying the EIR, Directors certified that no new information had been received that would change EIR findings, and thereby ignored the content of all letters coming in before the decision.