March, 2012
Dear RRWPC Supporter:
As the drought continues, there is more and more concern about this summer’s river flows. Already the Sonoma County Water Agency has declared the month of March to be critically dry, based on low runoff into Lake Pillsbury. This designation in turn triggers greatly decreased releases from Lake Mendocino all month. It’s not a huge cause for concern just yet, since releases are recalculated monthly until June, but if we don’t get significant rainfall soon, it can be a harbinger of things to come.
RRWPC files complaint on Santa Rosa’s “incidental runoff”……
Lower river flows provide far less dilution while concentrating pollutants in shallow summer streams. Because of our great concern about the potential significant impacts of incidental wastewater irrigation runoff, Russian River Watershed Protection Committee posted a report of Santa Rosa’s recent irrigation runoff spills on our website at (http://www.rrwpc.org). Numerous pictures taken between mid-December and mid-January accompany the report and graphically illustrate the problem.