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.
RRWPC organized a letter writing campaign requesting Supervisors to extend the public comment period and to hold a real community meeting. Three days after the disastrous hearing, Supervisor Carrillo announced that the Board would vote on Oct. 4th on whether to extend public review to Feb. 14th, 2017, and also hold two real Hearings for the upper and lower river communities. The Supervisors did just that and the lower river meeting occurred Nov. 17th in Guerneville. The comment period was extended to February 14th, 2017. RRWPC has never seen an extension so extraordinarily generous in 38 years of our existence.
Guerneville Low Flow Hearing….The Nov. 17th County Hearing on the low flow project at the Guerneville Vet’s Building was very well attended. There were at least 100 people in the audience (compared to about 10-15 in Cloverdale the night before) and about a third spoke of their concerns about the proliferation of algae and possible toxic exposures of children and pets. Impacts to the economy from warning signs on beaches about possible public health risks were viewed as a big problem both because of concern for public health and concerns for the area’s tourist based businesses. Water quality in general was questioned and the need for the Jenner Estuary Project which forms the basis for flow reductions, were also considered.
Many people spoke at the hearing (without a time limit) and the comments were intelligent and thoughtful and expressed a great love of our river that is the soul of our community. The County provided a court reporter who made a transcript of the entire meeting. Here’s a link to the Staff presentation : http://www.scwa.ca.gov/files/docs/environment/environmental-documents/fish-flow/FISH-FLOW-DEIR-PRESENTATION-11_17_2016_FINAL.pdf The full transcript is not available yet, but we’ve just learned that the meeting was taped by KGGV, the local public radio station, and is available online at KGGV.FM.
State Water Board begins process for low flow review….In the meantime, the State Water Board Division of Water Rights began early review for the proposed permanent changes to Decision 1610, in spite of the lack of a completed environmental review process. They required protest letters on a project that had not been fully formed yet. They did this in 2010 also when almost 400 people submitted letters. Then about four months ago, they sent letters to 2010 ‘protesters’ telling them their protests were no longer valid because the project had changed and new ones needed to be filed. (Does something smell fishy here?) Thus our new letter writing campaign began.
RRWPC letter writing campaign off and running….If you have not signed on yet, we have included the current protest letter with this mailer. Please fill out and send back to RRWPC and we will email it to the appropriate staff people. If you had sent the letter in our prior mailer, we inadvertently had a wrong address on it and many SCWA letters got returned. We apologize for the mistake and urge you to sign another letter. In order to be valid, they must go to both the State and the Water Agency and we are happy to send them for you. You can send signed letters back to us with the donor card (with or without a donation) and we will take care of it. If you have others sign also, you can send numerous letters to us and we will scan all and send by email to appropriate staffers.
RRWPC hires attorney to provide comments on legal issues….Our attorney Mike Lozeau, who is helping us file legal arguments on the DEIR, appealed to the State for an extension of time for protest letters. The extension was granted just a few hours before the final deadline on October 22nd, and are now due on the same date that DEIR comments are due, February 14th, 2017. We are hard at work getting signatures and ask that you make copies of attached letter and get friends and neighbors to fill out and sign. Young people who can print and write their name and address can fill one out, and also people who don’t live in the area. There are really no restrictions other than concern for the lower river. The letter explains why this project should not be approved. The State has now received approximately 300 letters. WE WOULD LIKE TO INCREASE THAT AMOUNT TO 1000. Please help!
The next task is to analyze and comment on the DEIR. For those who are interested in learning more, we recommend Chapters 3 in Volume 1: http://www.scwa.ca.gov/files/Chapter%203%20Background%20and%20Project.pdf. RRWPC will provide updates via email but we won’t be able to do another mailer before Feb. 14th. After that date, Water Agency staff will begin their response to comments. The completion of their responses can take 6 months to a year, depending on comments received. When responses are complete and proposed changes are suggested, everything will go into one document and presented to the Board of Supervisors for review.
A hearing will be scheduled about a month after notice, and it will then be up to the Supervisors whether to approve and/or make findings. (Supervisors can make changes to document/project.) Groups then have 30 days after approval to file legal motions opposing the project. This would of course slow final State approval considerably. There could be many legal actions filed concerning different aspects of the project up and down the river and final action could be held up for years. After receiving Supervisor’s approval, if there are no legal challenges, everything goes to the State Water Board for consideration of permanent flow changes. That will open up a new series of reports, comments, findings, hearings, etc. and could take up to two years or more. The State needs to see extensive citizen interest along the way in order to justify denial of the Federal Governmental Agency (National Marine Fisheries Service) Biological Opinion requirement.
RRWPC thanks our supporters this holiday season….This is the time when we thank all who have supported us this past year, including our Board of Directors (Sherrie Althouse, Nichae Blume, Dave Blanchard, Dennis O’Leary, and Brenda Adelman), numerous mailer volunteers, (especially Wayne Gibb, John Uniack, Lisa Vasse and RRWPC Board members) and all of you who contribute to sustain our efforts. Special thanks to Barbara DeIonno for her wonderful photos and graphs. Our donor list was intended to be enclosed with this mailing but at the last minute we discovered major omissions and the list must be corrected. We will include corrected version in our February mailer.
We also thank Russian River Senior Center staff for allowing us to use their space to assemble our mailers. We thank Mary Anne Sobieraj and Dave Blanchard for website upkeep and Mark Wiley for helping to keep our computers functioning smoothly. We thank Dennis O’Leary for serving as Secretary and especially thank Sherrie Althouse for serving as treasurer for many years.
Please join our action email list! Those who already shared their email addresses with RRWPC are participating in our action list and receive important announcements on issues coming up between mailers, such as sending letters of support when time is short. We do not share email address lists and use them exclusively for important announcements and calls to action. If you want to take part, please put email address on a donor card if you are sending in a contribution, or just send email to rrwpc@comcast.net asking to be on list. With low flow issue going strong, it is critical that as many of you as possible are on our email list.
RRWPC needs your support! RRWPC anticipates spending much of the year working on the low flow issue. We need your continued help and appreciate donations of any size. (We are in especial need now because of substantial legal costs. It takes a long time to review such a hefty document even while limiting effort to most significant sections.) RRWPC relies on about six mailers a year now for our entire fiscal support. Those who have not responded for over 3 years (see date on mailer envelope) will be taken off our list in early January if you cannot contribute before then. Contact us at rrwpc@comcast.net for further information. Please pass this information on to other interested parties. Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season!