Sonoma County Gazette, March 2009

The Big Water Mess

By Brenda Adelman

SCWC Declares Critical Water Shortages While Holding Meetings on Increased Water Allocations
Critical water shortage alerts have bombarded us in the media lately.  Mother nature was scaring us good until a few weeks ago, when the winter rains finally poured down and reservoirs started to fill.  Not enough, said County Water Agency staff who alerted everyone to the critical need for stringent conservation even while the crisis diminished.  They plan to ask the State Board to declare a state of emergency that would allow the Agency to limit Guerneville flows to 35 cubic feet per second, (normally at least 125).    At those flows, there would be no lower river recreational season this year and a great deal of environmental harm could occur.

Ironically the Water Agency recently held six formal hearings around the County on a proposed project intended to increase the amount of water they could withdraw from the river.  They recorded public comments on the 3000-page Water Project Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that few people knew about or read. At the Guerneville, Santa Rosa, and Sonoma meetings, there were fewer citizens attending than Agency staff present, even though the Agency claimed extensive publicity had occurred.