For the last several months, all has been quiet on the wastewater front, at least as far as the public has been concerned. We have taken the time to work on getting our papers in order and managed to attack about 1% of what needs to be done. It’s a snail’s pace effort. But now, County actions are stirring things up again.
RRCSD nowhere near ready to become a Regional Plant…..There are efforts afoot to possibly make Russian River County Sanitation District (RRCSD) the center piece of a regional wastewater treatment plan. As we explained in our last mailer, under our current government, adequate funds are not likely to become available to address the dire repairs necessary to our system, but County leaders (and their plans) move forward nonetheless. (If you recall, about $45 million is currently needed to repair our collection system.)
Not long ago we reported that between 2007 and July, 2017, according to an official Regional Board Chart, RRCSD spilled more sewage and/or partially treated wastewater into the Russian River than five times the combined total of the other 18 dischargers put together. We have since also learned from Regional Board files that RRCSD caused 35 spills since 2013, with over half of those designated Category 1 spills (discharges into waterways), occurring between 2013 and 2024, and which were discharged into the Russian River or attached waterways. 2,482,304 gallons were estimated to have been spilled, and we strongly suspect this is an undercount. No other discharger came close to this amount, and even considering this facility as the star of the West County plan is totally irrational, unless major improvements are made.
In our view, we would totally discourage further hookups to RRCSD until these breakdowns can be fully resolved. Now every time we have a major storm (and we are heading towards #3 for this water year as I write this letter), we photograph large tanker trucks near Safeway and Dubrava on Highway 116, running hoses from what we believe are sewer mains that are probably moving excess flows to the RRCSD Treatment Plant. This action would prevent pathogens and toxins from getting into the river and infecting its inhabitants. A properly and compliant working system, including pipelines, pump stations and headworks of our collection system, must be prioritized so pipelines carry ALL the waste to the plant.
Extremely high sewer rates will probably continue well into the future….RRCSD ratepayers have about the second highest costs in Sonoma County. Two years ago fee increases went from an average of 5% to 9% and are now likely to remain at that level. (We will learn about this year’s hikes within a month.) The 2023 RRCSD fiscal report stated the following about the situation:
The requested rates should provide the funds necessary to operate and maintain the RRCSD’s collection system, treatment plant, and reclamation system. In addition to the funds needed for the ongoing operation of wastewater treatment and disposal facilities, funds are necessary for the replacement of aging infrastructure. In 2014, the main pipeline that feeds wastewater to the treatment plant ruptured. This event, along with a natural hazard assessment completed for the District in 2014, identified the need to upgrade significant portions of the collection system that are located in unstable soils and that could fail during a large earthquake. Addressing this collection system vulnerability will take on the order of 20 years to complete. Rate increases over the rate of inflation will be needed for several years to generate funding for these projects. Can we wait 20 years hoping there is no earthquake in the meantime? And is it fair that our fees will pay the penalty for the failures of the County to maintain our system properly?
RRCSD $1,000,000 Spill Penalty to be used for Regional Wastewater Study….This new West County plan, paid for by RRCSD ratepayers, will begin focus on the communities of Guerneville, Monte Rio, Villa Grande, Occidental, Graton, and Forestville. Plans are still vague at this point, but here are some features that the County considers attractive:
- Proponents claim a widespread combined project with miles of pipeline to install and maintain, will provide more cost effective services (No details given; it’s all conjecture now. Pipelines generally cost about $1-$3 million a mile and installing both raw sewage and treated water irrigation pipes relatively long distances to serve these communities can cost a bundle, not to mention the systems to pump the sewage.) The distance would depend on the chosen route, but sending sewage from these communities to Santa Rosa or Windsor for treatment is also being considered. How can a properly built system serving all these communities be cost effective?
- We are concerned that possible earthquake damage to a widespread project could make repairs impossibly expensive and might stall system use for long periods of time. Unacceptable!
- We can’t imagine that the current federal government would look kindly on such a project and help with the funding, rather than leave most funding on the backs of local residents.
- Increasing availability of recycled water is considered a worthy goal. But drought is when growers are most in need of this product, and necessary water conservation under those conditions would greatly limit the supply of wastewater. Also, if farmers are paying for the irrigation water, they will want pipelines in close proximity to their fields, which could limit the amount utilized.
- Small communities cannot afford broad pipeline distribution either. We think the anticipated goal of 12,000 hookups to the ‘central’ system would require far more parcels hooking up than those areas mentioned, making this potentially a very growth inducing project.
- Current excessive flows and frequent spills during floods would be a big strain on the rest of this system that is not in the Russian River flood plain. The expense of sending flood flows from Monte Rio, Villa Grande, and Guerneville may be excessive. It would probably be much cheaper to fix Guerneville and then add Monte Rio and Villa Grande ONLY. It would make more sense to possibly combine Occidental, Graton, and Forestville on one system (Pipeline project planned to take Occidental waste to Graton for treatment and can be met at Graton for one from Forestville (which may already exist). It does not seem practical or smart to combine all six into one system.
Occidental to Graton Wastewater Pipeline Feasibility Study (June 15, 2022 by Brelje & Race) After trying many solutions to Occidental’s failing treatment system over many years, the County is now, rather than continue trucking waste to the Airport facility at great expense, considering a pipeline from Occidental to Graton for treatment of most ordinary flows. Some winter flows may need to remain temporarily stored at Occidental site until more storage becomes available at Graton. Here’s a few important and relevant notes from 2022 Feasibility Study by Brelje & Race: Engineers:
- Occidental has approximately 273 service connections and contains 12,670’ of pipeline.
- There are two wastewater ponds with 0.87 million gallons capacity.
- Graton has about 600 connections, contains 6.5 miles of pipeline, and is about 40 years old.
- Average dry weather flow is 0.14 MGD and peak wet weather flow is 0.85 MGD.
- Graton staff indicated that 288,000 gpd is a reasonable maximum flow to consistently treat and would be the maximum daily flow they could handle from both towns. (More information in future mailers. It’s hard to know whether Forestville could even be included in this plan.)
RRWPC needs your continued support! Donor contributions sustain our independent river protection work and are badly needed now. Furthermore, we inform our community about a topic not usually covered in local newspapers. We rely exclusively on five or six mailers a year for our entire fiscal support. We are primarily a volunteer organization and appreciate any amount you can contribute. Donations may be sent via mailed check (with card and envelope provided) or by using PayPal at our website (www.rrwpc.org). Any amount is appreciated.
Monte Rio/Villa Grande Citizens Advisory Group (CAG)….
The Russian River Citizens Advisory Group (CAG) of nine citizen members from mostly Monte Rio and Villa Grande, but also myself from Rio Nido, an engineer from Hacienda, and a representative from Sweetwater Water District, was a group first formed about six years ago. We work with representatives from the North Coast Regional Board, the Sonoma County Water Agency, Supervisorial and Administrative staff, the Planning Department, and occasionally others, to look at possible wastewater options to deal with MR/VG septic system issues.
We won’t go into much detail here because we have written about this many times and you can find our letters and articles at www.rrwpc.org We are opposed to spending money on studies until the Water Agency (operators of our Russian River System) finds money to fix our seriously impaired collection system and pipeline under the river to the Treatment Plant, which is the very place where Monte Rio and Villa Grande would be hooked up to the system. The County previously applied for a $20M Grant from the State but were turned down because of State fiscal problems. And that was BEFORE the election.
RRCSD had received over a $1,000,000 penalty for almost million gallon spill last February’s big flood in 2019. Because of a new rule covering how penalties should be assigned, the money could not be spent on fixing at least part of the problem (Fixing Guerneville’s entire sewer problem would cost over $40,000,000.) In order to prevent more massive penalties, the Regional Board has said the operator can send more flood water to the Treatment Plant, even though it cannot be fully treated when discharged which is illegal according to their discharge permit. We are trying to get more information on the quality of the wastewater before discharge. In other words, we believe that the Regional Board is allowing illegal discharges during large floods for which ratepayers would later get fined. (We are working on getting this clarified.)
In the meantime, here are the other projects occurring in the West County, some of which we support and others we believe will be a big waste of time and money.
Occidental & Graton Transfer Pipeline: “The objective of this project is to design approximately 7 miles of 4” diameter force main pipeline to transfer wastewater from Graton for treatment, reuse and disposal. “ https://www.sonomawater.org/ocsdpipeline Forestville may be interested in hooking up to this also for summer irrigation. We are tentatively in support of this option.
Lower Russian River Governance Study: This is a plan to ostensibly improve service delivery in the region by possibly changing various forms of local governance and linking different entities together to provide more efficient services. We limited our concerns to wastewater and its disposal. Our greatest concern is about possibly linking a large number of West County treatment plants to each other via pipeline through environmentally challenged areas that are flood prone with fragile geology and then sending raw waste to Santa Rosa for treatment. (This could include RRCSD.)