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. More »
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. More »
Dear RRWPC Supporter:
In 38 years of tracking water quality issues and reading environmental impact reports (EIRs), Russian River Watershed Protection Committee (RRWPC) recalls only one EIR that surpassed the size, weight and number of volumes of Sonoma County Water Agency’s (SCWA) Fish Habitat Flows and Water rights Project (Fish Flow Project), released on August 19th, 2016.
That was Santa Rosa’s Subregional Long Term Wastewater Project in late 1996, a 24 volume document that cost about $16 million, and proposed as the preferred project 20% wastewater discharges (5% being the previous limit.) into the Laguna de Santa Rosa and Russian River. Because the listing of three salmonid fish species as threatened occurred about that time, and due to much goading from the public, they ended up pumping most of the wastewater to the Geysers. More »
Fish Flow Project (low flow) is about to begin….The long awaited Fish Flow Project Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), will be released Friday, August 19, 2016, and include a 60-day comment period ending on October 17, 2016. Subsequently, staff will respond to comments before a final version is approved. The project proposes to lower Russian River summer flows up to 50% and will be in effect each year between May 15th and October 15th through 2023 and probably extended through 2040.
The National Marine Fishery Service’s (NMFS’s) Biological Opinion (BO), includes a requirement that Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) reduce lower river minimum summer flows to as low as 60 cubic feet per second (cfs). In the past, minimum flows* between 1986 through 2008 were usually 125 cfs during normal rain years. The Biological Opinion, released in September, 2008, has regulatory powers and neither considered environmental impacts to the river between Forestville and Duncans Mills, nor was ever subjected to public environmental review. More »