RRWPC Settles Lawsuit with Russian River County Sanitation District (RRCSD) over Storage Basin EIR
By Brenda Adelman
For the last year and a half, Russian River Watershed Protection Committee (RRWPC) has been quietly challenging the Russian River County Sanitation District’s (RRCSD) approval of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a new Storage Basin at the Treatment Plant. We have finally reached a settlement with the District.
RRCSD Expansion Project divided into four parts…..
The Sonoma County Water Agency are operators and managers of the RRCSD. Their Board of Directors is the Board of Supervisors, who also sit as the Board of Directors for the Water Agency, and who had previously separated treatment plant expansion into four parts. They required each of these parts to be addressed separately, even though they should have been considered together for potential impacts to be examined in full.
RRWPC has been fighting for full disclosure of this expansion issue since the Water Agency took over management of the system in January, 1995. (The Agency insisted that none of these projects accommodated hookups by other communities or other expanded growth, while sizing all the components to meet greatly increased capacity.)
Part one: Disinfection….
RRWPC has not challenged this first project, which is a new disinfection system. The District has been under orders from the North Coast Regional Board to stop discharging wastewater containing excessive pathogens. The project will cost almost $4 million dollars and State loans are needed to fund the project. Because the loans have not been forthcoming yet, (applied for well over a year ago), the Regional Board keeps allowing extensions for the project. Hopefully, the funds will come through by next year and the project will probably be built next summer.
Part two: Camp Meeker/Occidental Pipeline Project…..
Another segment of the expansion was the pipeline to Occidental/Camp Meeker. The Camp Meeker Recreation and Park District did not certify the EIR because of high project costs (at least $22 million) and an inadequate EIR. RRWPC, with the help of geologists Jane Nielson and Ray Waldbaum, had persuaded the District of the many flaws in the document. The Board of Supervisors later approved the EIR, but did not select the project. It appears to be a dead issue for now.
Part three: Irrigation Project….
A third part of the RRCSD expansion was an enormous irrigation project that would have served vineyards in the Forestville/Graton region and called for about 22 miles of pipeline down Highway 116 AND River Road. With RRWPC playing an organizing role, a very large number of West County residents prepared to squash this project.
The scale was hugely out of line with the amount of flow that needed to be disposed. We were never even informed what this would cost, but we estimated it was a $15 to $20 million-dollar project. The District Board ordered the Water Agency to scale the project way back, and thus far, to our knowledge, it has not been pursued.
Project four: Equalization Basin….
Finally, the fourth project was the Equalization Basin, intended to provide additional storage during high winter flows and serve as a backup during upset conditions. The review process for the EIR was initiated in Dec., 2005, and three years later, the hearing for the Final EIR was held January 24, 2009. On March 18, 2009, the District certified the Final EIR.
While we don’t oppose the concept of providing additional storage, RRWPC had serious concerns about project details that needed to be addressed. The most important were the potential geological issues noted by Ray Waldbaum (registered geologist) and Jane Nielson PhD (retired USGS geologist) in their EIR comments.
Settlement Agreement Terms…..
Because of their comments, and as a result of our legal action, the Settlement Agreement calls for an independent outside evaluation of the EIR’s geological assessment by a highly qualified consultant selected by RRWPC (Cotton Shires, and Associates). The pond would be constructed at the Treatment Plant and would hold up to 3.5 million gallons and measure approximately 150’ by 250’. A 30’ wall would border it on the downhill/river side. In a extremely slide prone area such as this, it is critical that site stability be assured.
Another concern was for potential alterations to slopes, drainage ditches, damage to Neeley Rd. and also tree cutting and vegetation removal to accommodate the back and forth hauling of about 90 trucks a day. The Agreement calls for further environmental review if any such alterations are contemplated.
Another point in the agreement calls for ground water protection by requiring that basin design proposals be submitted to the North Coast Regional Board for review BEFORE any construction occurs. This would require that the bottom of the pond never contact groundwater. The EIR identified only about a five-foot separation in the worse case, which is too close for comfort, and we are not certain that ground water levels during highest river flows were considered.
The final point reiterates the District’s wastewater discharge permit, in that it requires any new sewer hookups that would cause the system to reach capacity within four years, to provide a technical report showing how flow volumes will be prevented from exceeding capacity, or how capacity will be increased, prior to approval of the connection.
This agreement and our other prior actions demonstrate the ability of citizen activists to play a meaningful role in helping to determine the community’s destiny. It does not represent everything we were aiming for, but is a proud result of focused attention to some of the problems of our sewer district.
Brenda Adelman and Russian River Watershed Protection Committee independently funded this lawsuit with donor contributions. We will receive no remuneration from the County for legal or other costs. Donations towards our effort would be gratefully received by RRWPC, P.O. Box 501, Guerneville, CA 95446