“Toilet to tap” is on its way….
What does “toilet to tap” conjure up in your mind? Are all substances going down our toilets and sink drains totally removed before being recirculated into our drinking water supply, our recreational waters, and our environment?
In California, only 125 chemicals of the over 80,000 that exist are regulated. About 870 of those chemicals, sometimes at minute exposures, have been linked to such diseases as autism, obesity, diabetes, cancer (especially of reproductive system), birth defects, Parkinson’s, heart disease, and more.
Hundreds of scientific studies, often ignored by the mainstream media, show there are valid reasons to question the safety of our water resources, especially when scientists have been discovering, for example, that some male fish and frogs exposed on a full time basis to streams where discharge occurs, have turned into females. This is a canary in the mine and we should all be paying much closer attention. More »
In 1985, the content of Santa Rosa’s 800 million gallon sewage dump was referred to as ‘treated sewage’. Over the years, this liquid waste became known first as treated wastewater, then reused wastewater, treated water, and now simply reused water. This terminology has been consciously modified to make the public feel more comfortable with wastewater reuse, otherwise known as direct potable reuse or more graphically, ‘toilet to tap’. It took 25 years to get Santa Rosa’s winter discharges out of the river (to the Geysers), but now summer discharge in the guise of irrigation runoff will take its place. Because of lower summer flows and less dilution, the impacts in summer may be cumulatively greater than the original spill. More »
The Estuary is a culmination of everything upstream.…
Meandering 110 miles through Mendocino and Sonoma Counties’ scenic river valleys, the Russian River passes through a multitude of diverse habitats, even while it’s main channel and tributaries have been dewatered, dammed, channelized, stripped of gravel, timber, and riparian vegetation. The impacts are most obvious during drought periods when low flows highlight much of the resulting harm. More »
Estuary Project Final EIR Released!
By Brenda Adelman
The Estuary Project Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was released on July 28, 2011. This is the project that plans to close the mouth of the river every summer to supposedly provide Steelhead habitat for the threatened fish. While it is incredibly important to do everything we can to save the fish, those of us who have studied the proposal believe this project will cause more harm than good. More »
Computer Controlled River
Our beautiful Russian River provides solace for recreationists on lazy summer days, even though essentially controlled by computer models during most of the vacation season. The flows gently rocking kayaks and canoes are managed by the Sonoma County Water Agency, the State Water Board, the National Marine Fisheries Service and correspondingly, State and Federal Water Law. Right now, thanks to late spring rains, the river is still flowing high, and for a little while “mother nature” will remain in charge. More »
SCWA Urban Water Management Plan
By Brenda Adelman
The hot topic among Sonoma County water wonks is the Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP). This is the water use plan required of all California utilities that provide water to over 3000 people or utilize over 3000 acre feet of water each year (one acre foot is about 325,000 gallons). It’s like the General Plan for water availability and projected need within the districts of each water utility. More »
RRWPC Hires Attorney to Fight Actions by Sonoma County Water Agency
By Brenda Adelman
Sonoma County Water Agency, operators and managers of the Russian River County Sanitation District, are seen as committing such egregious violations of California environmental law, that Russian River Watershed Protection Committee has hired the environmental law firm of Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger to assist in challenging their actions.
The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA), as operators and managers of the Russian River County Sanitation District (RRCSD) have been attempting to regionalize the RRCSD Treatment Plant since they took over 11 years ago, without serious regard for extensive environmental impacts of such a project. In 1996, 400 people crowded into the Forestville School in a unique meeting with the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, almost unanimously opposing a similar plan. Soon to be Supervisor Mike Reilly was one of many speakers strongly opposing the project, while he clearly supports it now. More »
Basin Plan Amendment Changes Proposed: Low Threat Discharges and Incidental Runoff
By Brenda Adelman
Are you prepared to recreate in wastewater? You say “no”? Well it won’t officially happen this summer, but the North Coast Regional Board has begun to consider an amendment to the North Coast Basin Plan that would eliminate the prohibition against summer wastewater discharges. Their purpose would be to allow “incidental” runoff of wastewater resulting from summer irrigation.
Many locals realize that fish are as important as people in terms of exposure to toxins in water because when we eat fish, we are eating what they ate. Furthermore, fish are like canaries in the mine; if they can’t survive, then ultimately, neither can we. (Canaries used to be sent down into mine shafts to see if there was enough oxygen for miners. The miners didn’t go down if the birds died.)
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Update on water supply and low flow issues
By Brenda Adelman
The low flow issue has become a very complicated subject, but we will attempt to address it as clearly as we can. First, Randy Poole, chief engineer of the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) stated at a recent meeting that “low flow” (minimal summer dam releases) would not be considered in the Biological Opinion due out from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in a few months. That document, for the time being, will only address current operations.
This document defines Federal concerns about the water system’s operational impacts on threatened and endangered fish species. New “low flow” requirements, were they to occur, could diminish summer flows so greatly that it would have a major impact on recreational activities in the lower river. More »
Search for Environmental Truth
by Brenda Adelman
Many people claim to be environmentalists who care about nature and then do little to protect it. They want clean water, but oppose riparian setbacks. They want clean air, but they drive SUVs. They mean well, as long as it is convenient. They don’t intentionally mess up, but fail to realize that, nature is part of us, and ultimately has the last word. It is complex and resilient, but can be irrevocably altered so that our future and our way of life may be at stake. We can’t live without clean water and clean air. That is the truth!
The food and water we eat and drink is a reflection of the respect, or lack of it, that we show to the natural world. If we put pesticides in our gardens, and if those poisons leach into our water and fly through the air, we are exposing ourselves, our neighbors, our community, and the world to potentially harmful toxins. Theo Colburn documented in “Our Stolen Future” that pesticides used in the United States have been found in the remote Arctic wilderness in areas totally unexposed to human activity. These toxins have been found to disrupt the endocrine system, causing many life-altering problems for humans and wildlife. That is the truth! More »