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Good news to report about DEIR comments….
The Regional Water Quality Control Board, along with the State Water Board, to our surprise, joined forces to submit a 77-page comment letter on Sonoma County Water Agency’s (SCWA) Fish Flow Draft Environmental Impact Report (FF DEIR). In their introduction, the State credits the large number of protest letters from the community as being a causal factor in this effort. They note (page 4), “It is expected, based on the complexity of the proposed changes {requested by State Board}, and the volume of protests already received, that these petitions will likely require several years of processing time….” (petitions for flow changes and other items)
Strong response thus far to letter signing campaign….
RRWPC is so very grateful to all who signed and/or helped submit over 600 protest letters (so far) to the State objecting to permanent lowering of summer flows in the lower Russian River. Special thanks to those who gathered multiple signatures. We are not done however, as the State deadline for protest letter submissions was extended to March 10, at 4:30 PM. If you have not yet signed, a copy of the letter was included in our December mailer. It was also sent out several times via email. If you haven’t done so yet, please sign and send to RRWPC at our Guerneville address. We will see that it is forwarded to the State and a required copy sent to Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA). By the way, the only requirements for signing are that person needs to be able to read letter, print, and sign their name. There are no age or residence requirements.
Low Flow the big river issue for 2016 and future …..RRWPC is happy to report positive news about community efforts thus far to stop the permanent lowering of summer flows to almost half of what the State currently requires. In a nutshell, the 3600-page Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was released August 19th by Sonoma County Water Agency, and a hearing planned for September 13th. The hearing was a disaster, as it started an hour late; staff took almost two hours with their presentation, and there were so many speakers that even with a strict three-minute limit, the scheduled 3 pm meeting lasted until 7:30. Many people had to leave before they could comment.