Sonoma County Gazette, October 2006

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.