A long-awaited overhaul of the lower Russian River’s aging wastewater system is on deck after Sonoma Water was awarded a $47.8 million grant from the state. The money, funded through California’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund program, will support the Russian River Sanitation District’s efforts to rehabilitate the system’s 34 miles of sewer lines and four miles of mains. … The award is the largest ever for Sonoma Water, the parent agency that first applied for the grant in 2019. It has seen repeated spills on its watch linked to the Neeley Road plant. The latest, and largest in more than 40 years, came in January, when an estimated 5.5 million gallons of wastewater, including untreated sewage, overflowed from the treatment plant into the lower Russian River for more than three days.