The Russian River drains the
sparsely populated, forested coastal area that stretches from San
Francisco to the Oregon border.
Along the Russian, federally funded dams have created Lake
Mendocino (at the Coyote Dam) and Lake Sonoma (Warm Springs Dam).
Locally built aqueducts channel water from these lakes into
growing Marin and Sonoma counties.
The Russian River is one of the most flood-prone rivers in
California, routinely overflowing during wet years. As storm
systems approach California, the wet bands of clouds are uplifted
by the Coast Range, releasing precipitation first and most
intensely on the coastal streams. One flood control dam is on the
Russian River and one on Dry Creek, a tributary to the Russian
River, which can capture about 20 percent of flood flows.
In addition to flooding issues, the Russian River faces other
challenges to balance competing demands for its water. In an area
that was once legacy to massive numbers of salmon and steelhead,
restoring the fishery has been a key focus, while water providers
must accommodate municipal needs as well as those of grape
growers in one of the world’s most prized wine-producing regions.
Our severe drought prompted the county to lobby the state to
decrease mandated new housing units due to water limitations.
Yet at a recent supervisors hearing, Permit Sonoma identified
no cumulative water impacts from cannabis grows whereas in
reality the county failed to analyze this. The county should
have done this six years ago while developing the original
ordinance. -Written by Deborah Eppstein, a retired scientist
living in Sonoma County, and Craig S. Harrison, a retired
lawyer living in Bennett Valley.
Sonoma County’s three Groundwater Sustainability Agencies – in
Petaluma Valley, Sonoma Valley and Santa Rosa Plain – released
their Final Draft Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) on
October 1, and now they’re hoping the public pays attention.
… The draft groundwater Sustainability Plan that was
issued this week presents findings that are concerning: “the
amount of groundwater stored in the aquifers is declining on
average by about 900 acre-feet per year … ”
The storage level in Lake Mendocino was on pace to drop below
15,000 acre feet on Saturday, meaning a quarter of the supply
water managers had hoped to keep in store by Oct. 1 already has
been released. The rapid shrinkage of the reservoir after two
years of historic drought raises unsettling questions about the
future for a range of consumers along the upper Russian River,
whose supplies already are heavily restricted.
California is in a second year of drought and for many North
Bay grape growers, the hot, dry conditions mean lost crops. In
2020 some growers lost 20% or more of their crops because of
dry conditions, fires, or smoke tainting the flavor of their
grapes. As the climate warms, winemakers and grape growers are
changing the direction they grow vines, picking earlier,
covering crops with shade cloth, and adapting in other ways.
… Some, like [winemaker John] Hamel, have shifted to dry
farming and are using a lot less water or none at all.
A multi-county, regional coalition of organizations bidding to
take over Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Potter Valley Project
didn’t get what it was asking for, but some believe that may be
a good thing for the Eel River and the fish that depend on it.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Sept. 23
rejected a request from the Two Basin Partnership [a group of
stakeholders]… that sought more time to form a singular
entity to take over the project from PG&E with an operating
agreement that would benefit both Eel River and Russian River
basin interests.
While climate change and drought loom as existential threats to
California agriculture, there’s one farming sector that may
come out ahead: wine grapes. Many California winegrowers have
had to cut back on irrigation this year, but using less water
for a limited period doesn’t necessarily hurt quality. In fact,
some of the best recent vintages were from 2012 to 2014, during
the last drought, and many vintners are saying grape quality is
looking excellent so far during the current harvest, despite
the record-breaking drought this year and last.
Everyone in California has been asked to conserve water, but no
one is doing it better than one community in the North Bay.
Healdsburg has cut its water use in half. Lake Mendocino
provides the bulk of Healdsburg’s water, and early in the
summer there was talk of that lake simply running dry. Just the
thought of that scared this city into an aggressive
conservation plan. … Letting the park lawns die off was
only part of the answer. To cut overall water consumption in
half, Healdsburg set out to change the way residents think
about their own water use.
The past few years have been rough for Sonoma County’s farmers
and agricultural workforce. Wildfires, the COVID pandemic and
crushing drought have made the process of shepherding a crop to
maturity daunting – but so far, not impossible. … Mauritson
[Farms] cultivates about 500 acres of premium wine grapes
in the Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley and the Rockpile
viticultural region near Lake Sonoma. Yields for 2021 are down
15 to 30%, Mauritson said, but the quality is superb.
Amid a withering drought, a severe harmful algal bloom in
California’s second-largest freshwater lake is producing
exceptionally high toxin levels, resulting in a drinking water
emergency for hundreds of residents who draw water directly
from Clear Lake. The colorful but noxious mats of cyanobacteria
in the Northern California lake have also led to difficulties
for public utilities that have more sophisticated treatment
systems than individual households.
Two water companies are supporting local and state officials in
assisting Lake County residents who are being affected by a
health advisory related to their private drinking water
intakes. On Wednesday evening, approximately 280 properties in
the Oaks and Lower Arms of Clear Lake that use a personal,
private intake to draw their household water directly from the
lake were advised by Public Health officials not to consume
their tap water, due to high cyanotoxin levels.
Lake County officials are hustling to find alternate drinking
water sources for an estimated 280 households whose regular
supplies may be compromised by high concentrations of toxic
blue-green algae in Clear Lake. Most residents are served by
one of 55 commercial water systems operating around the county,
officials said. But those with private systems that take water
directly from the lake may not have sufficient treatment
capacity for increasing levels of a potent liver toxin called
microcystin.
The Two-Basin Partnership, comprised of California Trout,
the County of Humboldt, the Mendocino County Inland Water &
Power Commission, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, and Sonoma
County Water Agency, on September 2 asked the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow additional time to
re-evaluate the proposed plan to take over the Potter Valley
Hydroelectric Project (Project). The Partnership
specifically requested that the time delay continue until May
31, 2022, at which time the Partnership will provide further
notice regarding its plans.
Parts of the Pacific Northwest are under a fire weather watch
through Friday, when a combination of dry conditions, high
temperatures and low humidity are creating a breeding ground
for flames should any small fires ignite. But in just 48 hours’
time, those conditions will pull a meteorological U-turn as a
show of drenching rain arrives in coastal Washington, Oregon
and Northern California.
New testing results that have found record-high levels of
cyanotoxin at sampling sites on Clear Lake prompted the Public
Health officer on Wednesday night to issue a warning to those
who source their water from private intakes on the lake.
To expedite the delivery of much-needed drinking water to
coastal Mendocino County residents whose wells have gone dry,
the California State Water Resources Control Board has amended
its previous curtailment orders to allow the city of Ukiah to
draw water from the Russian River for emergency supplies.
This year’s wine harvest is well underway throughout
California, and vintners in some parts of the state say they’re
feeling the effects of climate change more acutely than ever.
The drought has left grapevines parched. Fruit yields
are dramatically low. Vines look visibly stressed. In some
vineyards, all of the grapes seem to be ripening all at once,
presenting winemakers with a logistical impossibility. And the
threat of wildfire — which, by this time last year, had ruined
grapes up and down the state with pernicious smoke — remains on
everyone’s mind.
Water quality regulators let a Sonoma County-based quarry know
last week it could face a $4.5 million-fine for multiple
alleged violations of the Clean Water Act that threaten the
survival of endangered salmon populations in tributaries of the
Russian River. The proposed fine from the North Coast
Regional Water Quality Control Board is part of a legal
proceeding known as an administrative civil liability that
alleges the operator of Mark West Quarry, Dean Soiland, doing
business as BoDean Co. Inc., discharged highly turbid
stormwater from its quarry operations into Porter Creek from
September 2018 through May 2019.
The North Bay could see thunderstorms this week — a
double-edged forecast for a region beset by drought but wary of
the possibility of vegetation fires sparked by dry lightning.
….Long periods without rain have dried out fields and forests
across the state and created an abundance of dry fuel for
vegetation fires to spark and spread. California is in the
middle of its fire season and on pace to match last year’s
record wildfire destruction.
The city of Ukiah has been relying primarily on groundwater,
recycled water and conservation to get through the drought and
hasn’t been exercising its right to water from the Russian
River, which is experiencing historic low flows. That’s about
to change now that the city has agreed to help the coast
through the drought.
When Jenny Hess visited her sister in Healdsburg, Calif., in
May of 2020 to get out of New York City during Covid, she was
entranced by the area’s temperate weather, natural beauty and
sophisticated food and wine culture. The attraction
endured—even when she had to flee for 12 days due to a raging
wildfire right behind her sister’s house.
As Tropical Storm Ida cripples New York City and flooding takes
dozens of lives along the East Coast, California suffers from a
two-year drought that has curtailed water supplies and spawned
wildfires scorching nearly 1,000 square miles. One side of the
nation gets far too much water, the other side far too little,
The common element is climate change and it would be folly for
Californians to yearn — even with flames approaching Lake
Tahoe, the jewel of the Sierra — for a portion of the rain
falling 3,000 miles away.
As unprecedented drought conditions plague much of the West,
reservoirs are running dry. Communities reliant on these
sources for drinking water are tightening restrictions to
preserve adequate supplies. … Located in California’s
Wine Country, the city [of Healdsburg] implemented water
restrictions in June to maintain its drinking water supply
through 2021. The mandate cut water use by 40 percent,
limiting individuals to 74 gallons a day. It also banned the
use of sprinklers and drip irrigation.
While residents of the Southeast clean up from floods and a
hurricane, meteorologists are warning that Northern California
should be prepared for a third year of drought. … The
biggest immediate concern is the upper Russian River, which is
fed by Lake Mendocino and provides water for Cloverdale,
Healdsburg and some prime Wine Country agricultural areas.
Storage in the lake dipped below 20,000 acre-feet last week
… Lake Sonoma, the region’s other major reservoir, is in
a little better shape with 116,500 acre-feet of
water.
The way Brigette Mansell sees it, the drastic water
conservation measures already required of those who live in
Healdsburg make it obvious the city needs to stop and think
about how much more it can grow. Development of luxury housing
and hotels that cater to tony visitors and part-time residents
— who may not be as invested in the community’s well-being —
defies logic, she says. Mansell, a former Healdsburg
councilwoman and mayor, and other like-minded residents support
continued efforts to provide affordable housing in the town.
Due to drought and poor water conditions at Lake Sonoma,
thousands of juvenile coho salmon have been relocated from the
Warm Springs Fish Hatchery in Geyserville. The fish were
trucked to a conservation facility at a high school in Petaluma
where they will be reared until conditions improve. Beginning
in late spring, rising water temperatures at Warm Springs
Hatchery increased the risk of heat stress and pathogen
outbreaks. Scientists developed the relocation plan as a
precaution to keep the hatchery coho safe.
Starting in 2023, the state wants Sonoma County to approve over
14,500 new homes for residents of all income levels over the
following eight years. Though no final target has been
approved, officials in some of the county’s largest cities have
made ramping up home construction a priority with the goal of
alleviating the region’s shortage of affordable housing. At the
same time, though, the state is also mandating water cutbacks
across the region during what is shaping up to be the worst
local drought in more than four decades.
As farms and communities along the Russian River feel the brunt
of the worsening drought, state regulators suspect that some
people have been siphoning off water illegally. … It
seems that some of the water released is not getting all the
way down to Healdsburg, and state regulators think some people
up river might be cheating.
As the drought deepens, industries that rely on water are
facing a desperate situation and that includes the wine regions
of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys where one producer has literally
run dry. Chris Loxton, of Loxton Cellars, spends so much time
in his Glen Ellen vineyard that he can spot the slightest
changes in his grapevines and the news isn’t good. …
Vineyards across this famous wine-growing region are beginning
to show signs of stress from lack of water.
6-PPD is a chemical widely used to protect car tires from
ozone. However, when rainwater washes it into freshwater, 6PPD
degrades into 6-PPD quinone, a contaminant that a recent study
has linked to the mass deaths of Coho salmon in the Pacific
Northwest of the US. Researchers from Northeastern University
and the University of Washington found that even small doses of
6PPDq were lethal for the salmon. … According to the
California Water Board, Coho populations today are
probably less than 6% of what they were in the 1940s, and there
has been ‘at least’ a 70% decline since the 1960s.
A “fish die-off” is generally a natural phenomena and occurs in
summer when low oxygen and warm temperatures causes large
mortality in a localized population of fish. Fish die-offs can
also happen in winter months when temperature stress can kill a
fish population. We have seen winter die-off happen during
extreme winters here in Clear Lake and her tributaries,
especially to the fragile, small bait fish populations like the
threadfin shad and silversides.
In the hopes of having at least 20,000 acre-feet of water
remaining in Lake Mendocino by Oct. 1, the California State
Water Resources Board this week ordered about 1,500 water
rights holders to stop diverting water from the Russian River.
However, if the current rate of outflow from the reservoir
continues, the lake could reach 20,000 acre-feet by Aug. 23,
said Elizabeth Salomone, general manager of the Russian River
Flood Control & Water Conservation Improvement District.
Known for its starry skies, Joshua Trees and 100-plus-degree
heat, California’s vast desert has recently become a hotbed of
something else: thieves stealing California’s water. So who’s
on the receiving end of all this theft? Local investigators say
it’s often illegal pot farms. And with the parched state in a
withering drought, water managers are doubling as amateur
detectives.
Facing criticism over its practice of monitoring some fires
rather than quickly snuffing them out, the U.S. Forest Service
has told its firefighters to halt the policy this year to
better prioritize resources and help prevent small blazes from
growing into uncontrollable conflagrations. The change came
days after politicians in California and the West, including
Gov. Gavin Newsom, publicly challenged the “let it burn”
approach after the Tamarack fire ignited last month, as The
Times detailed in a story Sunday.
For decades, California winemakers have long thought of the
Winkler Index as gospel. Developed in the 1940s by two
professors at the University of California at Davis (U.C.
Davis), the Index uses regional climate conditions to determine
the best places to grow a wide range of wine grapes. With
increasing pressures from heat and drought bearing down on the
state, however, the Index may currently be horribly out of
date. On July 22, U.C. Davis announced it would update the
Index for the first time in more than 75 years.
Unprecedented drought conditions have forced state water
regulators to take the drastic step of officially suspending
water rights along the Russian River. Sam Boland-Brien
with the state water board said conditions have continued to
worsen in the Russian River watershed and the orders formally
direct those who have longtime permission to divert water from
the Russian River to stop, because there is no longer enough
water to support their water right.
State regulators are suspending the ability of about 1,500
water right holders to draw from the upper Russian River
watershed, in an unprecedented bid to try to preserve as much
storage in Lake Mendocino as possible in the event of a third
successive dry winter. The order handed down Monday will affect
hundreds of grape growers, ranchers, small water districts,
towns and rural property owners. It takes effect Tuesday under
emergency regulations adopted in June by the State Water
Resources Control Board.
I am a big fan of having as many solutions in the toolbox as
possible, including anything that produces more water, but the
reality is that we must live within our current supplies short
of buying more rights to Russian River water, piping in water
from the East Bay or desalination. So how do we do that?
Collectively, we waste a lot of water in our homes, mostly in
our landscapes. We often fail to fix a leak, rarely check out
irrigation systems for problems and overwater most of our
plants. -Written by District 4 Supervisor Dennis
Rodoni.
A new study has found that cannabis farms in California’s prime
growing regions, including the North Coast, rely primarily on
groundwater wells to irrigate their crop as opposed to streams,
providing more insight into the debate over water scarcity as
the state grapples with a historic drought. The Cannabis
Research Center at UC Berkeley report found that well water use
by cannabis farms is common statewide, exceeding 75% among
farms that have permits to grow in nine of the 11 top
cannabis-producing counties that include Sonoma, Mendocino and
Lake counties.
Fish, farms or people? Water managers are facing hard choices
about who gets first dibs on an ever dwindling supply of water
in the state’s reservoirs resulting from severe drought
conditions. Fish have historically been last on the priorities
list in drought years and that’s had negative ripple effects
across tribal and coastal communities, according to testimony
presented July 27 at a Joint Committee on Fisheries and
Aquaculture chaired by North Coast State Sen. Mike McGuire.
NDVI is a measurement of vegetation density and indicates plant
health at a given location. … To visualize drought in the
Russian River Watershed, we subtracted the NDVI values from the
first two weeks of June in 2020 from the same two weeks in
2021. By taking the difference between the two sets of data we
were able to quantify changes in vegetation within the
watershed over a one year period.
In Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast, city leaders are rushing
to install an emergency desalination system. In Healdsburg,
lawn watering is banned with fines of up to $1,000. In
Hornbrook, a small town in Siskiyou County, faucets have gone
completely dry, and the chairman of the water district is
driving 15 miles each way to take showers and wash
clothes. So far, California’s worsening drought has been
an inconvenience in big cities. But it’s already imperiling an
alarming number of communities, especially between the Bay Area
and the Oregon border, threatening the water supplies for more
than 130,000 people.
Jennifer Beretta has been working as a dairy farmer since she
was 6 and knows some of her family’s 700 cows by name. One of
her favorites, a Jersey named Harmony, has won top prizes at
the Sonoma County Fair. … But business is business, and right
now business is bad. California’s devastating drought has dried
up most of the Beretta Family Dairy’s pastures, driven up the
cost of feed and made milking cows unprofitable. The Beretta
family has sold off more than 40 of its cows this year, and
could sell more before too long.
How are we messaging to our summer guests about our Climate
Emergency? About our town’s precious, empty Russian River
watershed? Is this a teachable moment for these privileged
travelers who come from places of Water Security? We should all
be True Believers in Climate Change. Effective June 8, 2021,
Healdsburg’s Stage Three mandatory conservation seeks a 40%
reduction in water use citywide with additional, restrictive
rules: 74 gallons per resident per day; No
irrigation; Hand watering only; Planting is
prohibited; $1,000 fine per day…the city means business!
-Written by Brigette Mansell, former Healdsburg
mayor.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is asking
recreational anglers to voluntarily change how, when and where
they fish to minimize stress and mortality among fish
populations suffering from drought conditions. CDFW is advising
anglers not to fish past noon on certain inland waters as even
catch-and-release angling during the hottest parts of the day
can greatly increase fish stress and mortality.
… Coldwater species such as trout, salmon and steelhead
have the greatest likelihood of being affected by the drought
this year but low water levels and high-water temperatures can
potentially affect all inland aquatic species.
One day last spring, water pressure in pipelines suddenly
crashed In the Antelope Valley, setting off alarms. Demand had
inexplicably spiked, swelling to three and half times normal.
Water mains broke open, and storage tanks were drawn down to
dangerous levels. … It took a while for officials
to figure out where all that water was going: Water thieves —
likely working for illicit marijuana operations — had pulled
water from remote filling stations and tapped into fire
hydrants, improperly shutting off valves and triggering a chain
reaction that threatened the water supply of nearly
300 homes.
I can see my future: It’s dry, thirsty and bleak. On our farm,
we live with drought daily, working with limited groundwater
and learning to adjust and adapt, or to fail and abandon our
fields. Water will determine a farmer’s survival. I farm
organically outside Fresno, part of one of the world’s richest
and most productive agricultural oases, providing, of course,
that we have water. … A severe two-year drought is
drying out the West and Southwest from Washington to
California, Montana to Texas. Agriculture feels the impact with
crops withering and production limited. -Written by David Mas Masumoto, a farmer in Del
Rey, California.
After two consecutive dry winters and a series of early summer
heat waves, the vast majority of California is gripped by
drought. Water levels in reservoirs like Lake Oroville, Shasta
Lake and Lake Mendocino are dangerously low. Wells in parts of
the San Joaquin Valley and along the Russian River are drying
up, and local water officials have mandated water restrictions
up to 40% in some areas. Already, more
than 85% of California is experiencing extreme
drought conditions … and experts forewarn a third year
of drought could be on the horizon if the state doesn’t see
significant winter rain storms.
An environmental group dedicated to promoting healthy waterways
around California is taking Sonoma County to court over
permitting policies it says too liberally allow people to drill
groundwater wells, potentially endangering Russian River stream
flows. California Coastkeeper, an affiliate of the locally
based Russian Riverkeeper and a dozen or so other organizations
around the state, filed the first-of-its-kind lawsuit late last
month amid the intensifying drought and a surge in well
drilling around the region.
Drought can gradually parch the coffers of companies, while for
others it’s an economic boom. For some, it’s driving
innovation. One hair salon is using biodegradable towels, water
well drillers are turning away potential clients,
drought-resistant plants are all the rage, and watersports
proprietors are figuring out how to survive with less water to
play in. In spite of this resiliency, things could get worse
before they get better because the rainy season is still months
away.
The Santa Rosa City Council approved mandatory water-use
restrictions for its residents and businesses starting
Thursday, becoming the sixth city in Sonoma County to cut back
on water. The motion to approve the water-shortage contingency
plan — which mandates residents and businesses reduce water use
by 20% — passed with five ayes… A persistent lack of
precipitation has put most of the Bay Area in the worst drought
category.
When discussing the drought, the question of which crops use
the most water comes up a lot. A Pacific Institute analysis of
California Department of Water Resources data sheds light on
the state’s top 10 water-intensive crops in 2015, the most
recent year for which the department has published water-use
estimates. … The analysis ranked pasture first among
California’s top 10 most water-intensive crops …, followed by
nuts and alfalfa…
Marin Municipal Water District will soon study the idea of
returning the long-gone water pipeline to the upper deck of the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. It’s a smart move if the district
can locate another agency to sell them additional water. They
also should understand times have changed in the past 55 years.
Installing a new, hopefully permanent, pipeline won’t be the
snap it was in 1977. -Written by Dick Spotswood.
The California priority water rights system is being put to the
test, as state regulators impose emergency regulations and send
notices of water unavailability to farmers who are trying to
negotiate their crops through another drought year. Reacting to
worsening dry conditions, the State Water Resources Control
Board adopted emergency regulations last week to curtail water
diversions in the Russian River watershed in Mendocino and
Sonoma counties.
The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) and
Sonoma County Department of Environmental Health Services
advise caution for anyone who boats, fishes or swims after
harmful algal blooms (HABs) were discovered in multiple Sonoma
County rivers. Because children and dogs are most susceptible
to serious health impacts, it is recommended that they avoid
touching any suspicious-looking algal material found in the
water or along river banks.
In April of 2017, PGE began moving forward with its plans to
relicense the Potter Valley Project (PVP)—with, as of yet, no
designs to remove any of the infrastructure—and in August of
2019, Congressman Jared Huffman created the PVP Ad Hoc
Committee, a Two Basin Solution for the Eel and Russian River
basins, whose more than 20 members were tasked with the
relicensing process of the PVP to improve fisheries and fish
migration, minimize adverse impacts to water supply
reliability, respect tribal rights and minimize and mitigate
adverse impacts to Lake County including Lake Pillsbury.
Rich with promise and potential, the grapes that create the
Russian River Valley’s famed wines are ripening in the intense
midday heat. But soon they’ll face the fight of their lives,
deprived of water as the state diverts scarce supplies from
agriculture to the region’s thirsty cities and
subdivisions. … [Last] week, in a contentious step, the
State Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved an
emergency regulation to halt agricultural diversions for up to
2,400 of the region’s water rights holders. Citing state law,
the regulation prioritizes “health and safety,” saying
agricultural use is “an unreasonable use of water and is
prohibited.”
Salvador Parra, the manager of Burford Ranch in California’s
Central Valley agricultural breadbasket, is worried about the
lack of water. California’s worst drought since 1977 has forced
Parra to leave fallow 2,000 of his 6,000 acres and dig deep for
water to save the crops already planted.
The Sonoma County water agency received permission Monday to
immediately cut stream flows in the lower Russian River by more
than half in an effort to conserve water stored in Lake
Sonoma. Instream flows in the upper river, above Dry
Creek, which is fed by releases from Lake Sonoma, already are
being maintained at a very low threshold to keep as much water
as possible in Lake Mendocino, the smaller of the two
reservoirs.
Residents of Healdsburg are under new orders to reduce their
water use by 40% compared to a year ago — a challenging new
threshold that doubles a mandatory 20% conservation level
established in May that the city so far has been unable to
meet. In fact, May 2021 water consumption was 3% higher
than in May 2020, though more recent usage figures demonstrate
a rolling seven-day average reduction of 15%, according to a
city staff report.
Santa Clara County on Wednesday became the most populous county
in California to impose mandatory water restrictions, saying
that the worsening drought poses a significant threat to the
local groundwater supplies that provide nearly half the
drinking water for 2 million residents. On a 7-0 vote, the
Santa Clara Valley Water District board declared a water
shortage emergency and set a target of reducing water use
33% countywide from 2013 levels, a year the state uses as
baseline.
After farming squash, corn, melons, peppers and tomatoes by his
father’s side since childhood, Gabriel Castañeda is stepping
out largely on his own this year. With water in such short
supply, his dad, Humberto, thought he might forgo raising
summer fruits and vegetables this season and focus only on the
15 acres of wine grapes he grows near Fulton instead. But Gabe
Castañeda, who had helped his father build Humberto Castañeda
Produce into Sonoma County’s largest produce grower, wanted to
see what he could do to keep the family’s 40-year farming
tradition alive — even if on a very reduced scale.
There is dry, and then there is desiccated. As any movie
fan knows from the classic film Chinatown, California is
an infamously thirsty place. But this year, even by its own
standards, the state is shockingly, scarily parched. So far in
2021, the state has received half of its expected
precipitation; that makes it the third driest year on record
according to California’s Department of Water Resources.
According to a flyer put out by the California Water Boards,
anyone who diverts water from a surface stream, lake or pond
into a water hauling truck must have a valid water right and
any unauthorized drafting or hauling of water is subject to
prosecution and fines—up to $500 a day, as high as $1,000 a day
during a drought year, and $2,500 per acre-foot of water
diverted—by the State Water Boards and the Department of Fish &
Wildlife.
In August of 2018, Congressman Jared Huffman created the Potter
Valley Project (PVP) Ad Hoc Committee for the Two-Basin
Solution for the Eel and Russian River basins with parties
working toward the relicensing process of the PVP that reflects
the following primary goals and principles: improve fish
passage and habitat on the Eel River sufficient to support
recovery of naturally reproducing, self-sustaining and
harvestable native anadromous fish populations including
migratory access upstream and downstream at current project dam
locations…
In just a few weeks, California’s water conditions have gone
from bad to terrible. Sacramento residents have been asked to
cut water usage 10%. Their counterparts on the Russian River
are being told to reduce their consumption 20%. Farmers across
the Central Valley are letting fields lie fallow and
dismantling their orchards. Government agencies are warning of
massive fish kills on the Sacramento River. After
a warm spring dried up practically the entire Sierra
Nevada snowpack — and robbed California of enough water to fill
most of Folsom Lake — state and federal officials have been
forced to dramatically ramp up their drought response plans.
The Sonoma County Regional Parks department is in the early
stages of exploring an idea to turn the seasonal summer dam at
Healdsburg Veteran’s Memorial Beach into a series of about 18
inches of drops, which would create four mini pools for lazy
river-style tubing, family-friendly swimming and fishing. The
early concept is a result of the need to either rebuild the
aging dam infrastructure, or create an alternative option in
lieu of the dam. The concept includes low flow channels for
fish passage, portage access, fishing access, trails and three
separate beaches.
The Mendocino County Farm Bureau encourages local, state and
federal leadership to focus current drought relief measures on
multi-purpose projects that address agricultural, municipal,
environmental, recreational and fire suppression water needs.
… On-stream ponds are created by damning a water course and
off- stream ponds are created by diverting from a river, a well
or a flood control contract.
A growing number of drought stricken California farmers are
making the painful decision not to plant as much or anything at
all for fear of losing it all. It costs a lot of money to put
seeds or seedlings into the ground. But if a farmer cannot be
reasonably sure of a crop, why do it?
Lake Shasta this summer is facing possibly its lowest level in
at least 44 years, and that could be bad news for the people
who rely on it for drinking and irrigation water, as well as
endangered salmon that depend on it to survive. Dam
operators have to go all the way back to 1977 to compare how
bad this year’s water situation is shaping up to be, said Don
Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which
manages the dam.
Well owners in Santa Rosa Plain, Petaluma Valley and Sonoma
Valley are invited to join community meetings on groundwater
conditions and sustainable management of this critical water
source. The Santa Rosa Plain, Petaluma Valley and Sonoma
Valley groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) are nearing
completion of major plans that identify issues with current and
future groundwater resources and that describe how these
challenges will be addressed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded his drought emergency declaration to
39 more counties Monday, underscoring the rapid deterioration
of California’s water supply in recent weeks. The governor
broadened his earlier drought order, which was limited to two
counties on the Russian River, to cover most of parched
California, which is plunging into its second major drought in
less than a decade. The new order covers the Sacramento and San
Joaquin river watersheds, the Tulare Lake basin region and the
Klamath region in far Northern California. About 30% of the
state’s population is now covered by the declarations…
Sonoma County supervisors are expected to offer their formal
support Tuesday for a plan to pump 20% less water than normal
from the Russian River for the remainder of the year,
preserving dwindling supplies in local reservoirs but making
less water available to more than 600,000 consumers in Sonoma
…
At its next meeting Wednesday, the Ukiah City Council will
consider a recommendation to spend more than $175,000 on a
system to help control algae in its recycled water system, also
called the Purple Pipe. According to the staff report prepared
for the May 5 meeting, “due to high nutrient content and local
climate, the water quality of recycled water within the storage
reservoirs can become negatively impacted by algal blooms.
Algae can become problematic once it is in the distribution
system and lead to clogging of filters or irrigation
equipment.”
Seven years ago, after the fish died, Sarah Ryan decided she
couldn’t wait any longer for help. California at the time
was in the depths of its worst drought in the last millennium
and its ecosystems were gasping. For Ryan, the fish kill in
Clear Lake, the state’s second largest and the centerpiece of
Lake County, was the last straw. Ryan is the environmental
director for Big Valley Rancheria, a territory of the Big
Valley Band of Pomo Indians that sits on the ancient
lake’s western shore. She and others raised alarms for several
years about increasingly dire blooms of toxic
cyanobacteria.
Little is said about the role of Lake Pillsbury in our
regional water system or the critical water it provides
to fill Lake Mendocino. If anything, its importance
to understated or not referenced at all in most media
articles. Without Lake Pillsbury at the Eel River
headwaters to control downstream flows, both the Eel and
Russian Rivers and surrounding aquifers will intermittently dry
up. … A strong movement is afoot to remove Scott Dam and
eliminate Lake Pillsbury… -Written by Frank Lynch & Carol Cinquini, Directors of
the Lake Pillsbury Alliance.
Stunning drone photographs of Lake Oroville help illustrate the
drought emergency declared by Gov. Gavin Newsom in two Northern
California counties. Water levels at Lake Oroville [the
keystone reservoir of the State Water Project, which supplies
water to 27 million Californians] have dropped to 42% of its
3,537,577 acre foot capacity. Conditions are particularly acute
in Mendocino and Sonoma counties because the local water supply
depends on rainfall in the Russian River watershed.
It has taken until the end of the second straight historically
dry winter, but California and its vast network of urban and
agricultural water suppliers, including those on the parched
North Coast, are now ramping up to confront the drought that is
tightening its grip on the state. Sonoma County
supervisors are set on Tuesday to proclaim a drought emergency,
becoming the first local government to take formal action on a
burgeoning water crisis that Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted
Wednesday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a drought emergency for
Sonoma and Mendocino counties, but resisted calls to issue a
statewide proclamation — at least for now. Newsom’s emergency
order primarily affects communities and water districts in the
Russian River watershed, which includes the cities of Santa
Rosa, Ukiah and Sebastopol. Some 360,000 people live in the
area.
It won’t solve California’s drought problems, but it’s better
than nothing. The first rain in a month could wet the Bay Area
and much of Northern California this weekend, forecasters say,
as a late-season storm from the Gulf of Alaska appears to be
headed toward the region. Computer models show the rain will
begin late Saturday in the North Bay, spreading across the
wider Bay Area and Santa Cruz Mountains on Sunday. … The
weekend system also could bring snow to the Sierra Nevada on
Sunday.
In a potential solution to a two-decade-old problem, Sonoma
County’s water agency has commissioned a $156,000 study of a
potential pipeline carrying Occidental’s wastewater to a
treatment plant in neighboring Graton. A pipeline between
the two west county hamlets would resolve the dilemma dating
back to a 1997 state order banning Occidental from
discharging effluent into a tributary of
the Russian River. Since 2018, the Occidental wastewater
system — one of eight managed by Sonoma Water — has been
trucking raw sewage 18 miles through Graton to a county
treatment plant at the airport, an expensive program seen as a
stopgap measure.
[S]ome scientists [are] saying the region is on the precipice
of permanent drought. That’s because in 2000, the
Western U.S. entered the beginning of what scientists call
a megadrought — the second worst in 1,200 years —
triggered by a combination of a natural dry cycle and
human-caused climate change. In the past 20 years,
the two worst stretches of drought came in 2003 and 2013 — but
what is happening right now appears to be the beginning stages
of something even more severe. And as we head into the summer
dry season, the stage is set for an escalation of extreme dry
conditions, with widespread water restrictions expected and yet
another dangerous fire season ahead.
The theme of the April 14 meeting of the Cloverdale City
Council is seemingly water — the council will be viewing a
presentation on its updated water and sewer rate study and
giving direction on whether or not to proceed to a public
hearing with new rates, and will also be discussing whether or
not it wants to join the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water
Partnership.
Drought is returning to California as a second, consecutive
parched winter draws to a close in the usually wet north,
leaving the state’s major reservoirs half empty. But this
latest period of prolonged dryness will probably play out very
differently across this vast state. In Northern
California, areas dependent on local supplies, such as Sonoma
County, could be the hardest-hit. Central Valley growers have
been told of steep cuts to upcoming water deliveries.
Environmentalists too are warning of grave harm to native
fish. Yet, hundreds of miles to the south, the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reports
record amounts of reserves — enough to carry the state’s most
populous region through this year and even next.
Larry Brown …was a renowned research scientist who was
recently acknowledged by a Stanford study as among the world’s
top 2% of scientists in his field.,,,In 1991, Larry joined the
U.S. Geological Survey as a research scientist, an association
that lasted the rest of his career.
We’re facing another very dry year, which follows one of the
driest on record for Northern California and one of the hottest
on record statewide. The 2012-16 drought caused
unprecedented stress to California’s ecosystems and pushed many
native species to the brink of extinction, disrupting water
management throughout the state. Are we ready to manage
our freshwater ecosystems through another drought? -Written by Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow,
and Caitrin Chappelle, associate director, at
the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy
Center.
Those of us in the water industry are always looking for new
ways to ask our customers to save, conserve, and never waste
water. And we do that for good reason. We live in a region
prone to regular periods of drought, punctuated by sudden and
catastrophic floods. Last year we had a very dry year, and this
water year is off to a very dry start as well. Sonoma Water,
which supplies drinking water to 600,000 residents in Sonoma
and Marin counties, relies on rainfall to fill our reservoirs
and consecutive years of below-average rainfall are always
cause for concern. Will this be a two-year dry spell, or the
beginning of a multi-year drought? Written by Barry Dugan, Senior Programs Specialist in
the Community and Government Affairs Division at Sonoma
Water.
California’s large reservoirs are currently operated using
historical hydrology and outdated assumptions about the state’s
climate. Many experts are calling for changing how reservoirs
are managed to reflect advances in weather forecasting, which
can help the state adapt to a warmer, more volatile climate. We
talked to Martin Ralph—director of the Center for Western
Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography—about advances in this field.
White Pine Renewables has completed a floating solar array in
northern California that the company claims is the largest such
project in the United States. The 4.8 MW Healdsburg Floating
Solar Project was installed on ponds at a wastewater treatment
plant in Healdsburg, California. It will deliver energy to the
city under under a 25-year power purchase agreement. The
company chose the project site and floating PV approach to help
reduce evaporation and algae growth at the ponds. The
electricity will cover around 8% of the city’s total energy
demand and move it toward its goal of 60% renewable energy
usage before 2030.
With much of Northern California swathed in a severe drought,
the city of Healdsburg is asking residents to voluntarily
conserve water by reducing irrigation and switching to drought
resistant plants, fixing leaky faucets and running clothes and
dishwashers at full capacity. As of Jan. 19, precipitation was
at 40% of normal rainfall according to Felicia Smith, a utility
conservation analyst with the city of Healdsburg.
Modern forecasting methods fueled by advances in understanding
and predicting atmospheric river storms have enabled U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (USACE) operators to better optimize water
resources at Lake Mendocino, a Northern California reservoir. A
multi-agency report issued Feb. 4, 2021, describes how
these forecasting tools have helped operators increase the
lake’s dry season stores of drinking water, improve its ability
to alleviate flood risk, and enhance environmental conditions
in the downstream Russian River to support salmonid
species.
For years, Gamble Vineyards has worked to create a more
biodiverse habitat on vineyard land, including establishing
animal sanctuaries throughout the property and donating acreage
to the Napa River Restoration project. Now the river’s growing
beaver population is chewing the trees that Gamble has planted
over the last 20 years.
A new set of winery wastewater guidelines will be imposed on a
statewide basis. The State Water Resources Control Board
recently adopted a general order regulating how wastewater will
be processed and discharged. … While the wine industry
is concerned with water quality issues, there is some concern
that a statewide mandate may not be the best approach to the
issue.
Sandbars are spreading across rain-starved Lake Mendocino, the
reservoir near Ukiah that is 35 feet lower than it was a year
ago, a grim wintertime sight for the second major source of
water for more than 655,000 people in Sonoma, Mendocino and
Marin counties. But the situation would be considerably worse
without the payoff from a six-year, $50 million project
applying high-tech weather forecasting to management of the
reservoir behind Coyote Valley Dam built on the East Fork of
the Russian River in 1958.
In anticipation of the first big storm of the winter, the
Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water) on Tuesday, January
26, 2021 will begin the process of deflating its rubber dam
located in the Russian River near Forestville. Sonoma Water
routinely deflates the rubber dam when Russian River flow
forecasts show the river reaching 2,000 cubic feet per second
(cfs) in order to prevent damage to the rubber dam from the
high flows. The forecasted winter storm this week is expected
to raise river flows above 5,000 cfs by Thursday.
About a mile of bare, cracked earth now lies like a desertscape
between the boat ramp at the north end of Lake Mendocino and
the water’s edge of a diminished reservoir that helps provide
water for 600,000 Sonoma and Marin County residents. The
human-made lake near Ukiah is about 30 feet lower than it was
at this time last year, and Nick Malasavage, an Army Corps of
Engineers official who oversees operations at the reservoir,
said the scene is “pretty jarring.”
For many years Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has operated the
“Potter Valley Project,” a hydroelectric facility on the main
stem of the Eel River consisting of Scott and Cape Horn dams
and a tunnel diverting water into the Russian River watershed,
where it is used to generate a small amount of electricity and
for irrigation by farmers in Potter Valley and farther south in
Sonoma County. The construction of Scott Dam in 1922
completely blocked passage of critically imperiled anadromous
fish including salmon, steelhead and lamprey…
Water levels at the coastal mouth of the Russian River had
declined by late Thursday afternoon, eliminating the threat of
flooding in the town of Jenner, according to a release from
Sonoma Water, the county water agency. High waves pounded the
Sonoma Coast for days, creating a large mound of sand that
sealed the mouth of the river. The waves’ intensity initially
kept Sonoma Water from sending a heavy equipment operator to
dig a channel that would release the water from the river into
the ocean.
The company behind a luxury resort and residential project near
Healdsburg is facing a $6.4 million fine over dozens of alleged
water quality violations involving streams that feed into the
Russian River, according to state water officials.
Lake Mendocino currently sits at 712 ft above sea
level… That’s very low. But despite years of dry
conditions … it’s not the lowest the lake has ever been.
Thanks to a new set of satellite technologies and water
management techniques dubbed FIRO, or Forecast Informed
Reservoir Operations (pronounced FEE-roh), the lake is still
more than a dozen feet above its record low.
Global climate experts are predicting a moderate to strong La
Niña weather event this year, meaning a stormy season for most
parts of the world but possibly drier-than-normal conditions in
Southern California.
Right now, the Mendocino County Sustainable Groundwater Agency
is writing up a groundwater sustainability plan for the basin.
The plan will regulate groundwater in the Ukiah Valley basin
for the first time ever, and will define how water is managed
in and near Redwood Valley, Calpella, and Ukiah for perpetuity.
Poor erosion control on the 258-acre site unleashed soils into
streams of the Russian River watershed and put fish and other
other aquatic wildlife at risk, regulators found, counteracting
millions of dollars spent to improve habitat and restore
imperiled, protected runs of salmon and steelhead…
Creek Week (starting the fourth week of September), and
California’s Coastal Cleanup Day all coincide in September to
encourage public participation in keeping our water free of
harmful pollutants, with a primary focus on removing trash from
local waterways.
The city of Rohnert Park is encouraging community members to
continue water conservation efforts although Sonoma Water has
lifted its emergency water conservation request. Sonoma Water
issued the emergency request as a precaution because its water
production facilities are situated along the Russian River
within the fire evacuation zone.
In burning to the edge of Lake Sonoma, the Walbridge fire has
posed an unprecedented threat to the water supply for 600,000
North Bay residents and scorched Sonoma County streams critical
to the revival of imperiled fish. … Experts estimate half of
the spawning habitat on Russian River tributaries has been
burned, dealing a potential setback to expensive, longstanding
efforts to bolster coho salmon and steelhead trout populations.
With Lake Mendocino losing about a foot of water every five
days, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declared that 2020 is
the “third driest year on record for the basin.” Though 2019
“was one of the wettest years over the past 25 years, this year
is stacking up to be one of the driest,” the Army Corps
explained…However, the Army Corps said a new forecasting
model for storms developed over the last few years has
definitely helped maintain the lake’s water levels.
Sonoma Water, in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, made a request this week for the mobilization of a
Watershed Emergency Response Team, a state team than can assess
the damage and propose mitigation plans for a five-mile stretch
of the Lake Sonoma area that burned in the Walbridge Fire.
The Sonoma County Water Agency filed a Temporary Urgency Change
Petition with the State Water Resources Control Board to reduce
Russian River minimum in-stream flows this summer. With the
Ukiah region facing its third driest water year on record, Lake
Mendocino’s water supply is projected to reach critically low
levels due to dry conditions and reduced water transfers from
the Potter Valley Project.
In a stark reminder that drought has once again taken hold on
the North Coast, Sonoma County is preparing to ask state water
regulators for permission to reduce water levels in the Russian
River this summer to conserve water stored in Lake Mendocino
and ensure minimal late-season flows for fish.
This network has been built up over 20+ years during several
epochs, including most recently in support of Forecast-Informed
Reservoir Operations with USACE and Sonoma Water, and with an
eye toward developing knowledge of what observations would be
needed in the future to support California’s needs for
hydrometeorological information related to drought and flood
monitoring and mitigation across the state.
Increased frequency and severity of droughts threatens
California’s endangered salmon population — but pools that
serve as drought refuges could make the difference between life
and death for these vulnerable fish, according to a study by
researchers from UC Berkeley and California Sea Grant…
The Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Trout, Humboldy
County, the Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission and
Sonoma Water have formed a group called the Two-Basin
Partnership and announced the filing of a feasibility report
with FERC on Wednesday.
A partnership of numerous Northern California agencies intends
to file an initial plan to acquire the Potter Valley project
from the Pacific Gas and Electric Co., multiple sources
confirmed. The coalition will submit a document to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission for its consideration. If
approved, the group may be able to form a partnered ownership
of complex water infrastructure dividing the Eel and Russian
rivers.
Following poor rainfall this winter and rising water demand in
recent years, the Marin Municipal Water District is considering
a major purchase of Sonoma County water as insurance for a
potential dry period.
Battered by fires, flooding, power outages and a mass
evacuation in recent years, Sonoma County residents now have to
brace for revival of the D-word — for drought. … Sonoma
County experienced a bone-dry February, a first in the area’s
history and the nadir of a rain season, now nearly over, that
has given Santa Rosa just 18 inches of rain — well over a foot
shy of the nearly 34-inch average for this time of year.
The local steelhead run is at the height of its roughly
four-month window, when adult fish raised from eggs at the Don
Clausen Hatchery return from the ocean, swimming up the Russian
River and Dry Creek. Returning salmon — including wild and
hatchery raised chinook and coho — make similar journeys
through the watershed, but their spawning seasons are a bit
different.
Two Italian-style restaurants have drawn generations of diners
to Occidental while serving pasta, pizza and soup — in recent
years under the burden of the steepest sewage treatment rates
in Sonoma County and among the highest in California. … There
could be some help coming from Graton, about 6 miles to the
east with an underutilized wastewater plant… But there’s a
catch
Rivers are vital. Like life-giving arteries, they deliver water
for drinking and irrigation and fertile soil for vineyards and
farms. They support watersheds teeming with life. But humans
are hard on rivers. We crowd their banks, dump waste in them
and take out water, fish and other resources. … When that
happens, who speaks for the river?
Nearly a year after construction was halted a second time at a
large resort project at the north end of Healdsburg when
water-quality regulators allegedly found millions of gallons of
sediment-filled stormwater running off into Russian River
tributaries, the agency announced it is pursuing a $4.9 million
fine against the developer.
The Russian River flowed with a cherry red tint Wednesday after
tens of thousands of gallons of fresh cabernet sauvignon wine
poured into the largest tributary in Sonoma County. The wine —
enough to fill more than 500,000 bottles — spilled from a
Rodney Strong Vineyards’ storage tank at the Healdsburg
winery…
A move by the Trump administration to roll back landmark
environmental policy intended to ensure vigorous scrutiny of
federal infrastructure projects has struck alarm in the hearts
of California conservationists, particularly those striving to
safeguard North Coast waters from offshore energy exploration
and production.
Homeless volunteers collect so much trash in the Russian River
watershed — 150,000 pounds as of October this year — that the
state Water Resources Control Board sees it as a model for the
rest of California.
CalTrout has identified Scott Dam, which impounds Eel River
water in Lake Pillsbury, as one of five aging dams it considers
“ripe for removal,” especially in the wake of PG&E’s
license surrender. There is, however, a potential middle course
backed by Friends of the Eel River, a Eureka-based nonprofit
that has long called for the dam’s removal.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
In Napa County, adjacent to Sonoma and the source of perhaps
the most expensive cabernet sauvignon outside of Bordeaux,
activists are pushing back against a steady conversion of
woodland into new vineyards. Kellie Anderson, an independent
watchdog who has harried local officials for years to step up
enforcement of environmental laws, says the county’s planning
department has ignored numerous violations by grape growers.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
The project includes improvements along more than 3 miles of
dirt roads, repairing culverts and building erosion control
features designed to reduce sediment flow into the creek. The
aim is to protect gravel nests, called redds, where female
salmon and steelhead lay their eggs, suffocating the eggs as
well as clogging the gills of adult fish…
Lake Mendocino made it through a typically long, hot summer
with an abundance of water and now, thanks to an ongoing
experiment with high-tech weather forecasting, the reservoir
can retain more water through the winter, benefiting people,
fish and farmers along the Russian River.
Scrapped waste tires dumped by the hundreds at two sites along
the Russian River near Hopland have incensed local watershed
stewards eager to see someone held accountable.
Russian River communities impacted by the 2019 flood may soon
see some help, as a budget trailer bill signed last week by
Gov. Gavin Newsom promises $1.5 million to the area that
suffered 100 landslides and slipouts and faces at least $155
million in damage.
A white egret delicately dips its beak into a small puddle. A
mother otter and pups dive and roll in a clear, still pool.
Tiny minnows dart in the shady shallows. And all of this takes
place a stone’s throw from backyards and byways. Our local
creeks and streams are literal rivers of life flowing through
Sonoma County communities.
An influx of Bay Area visitors to Sonoma County’s bucolic
riverlands has spiked in recent years, bringing with it a
problem typically reserved for the privacy of one’s own home.
People are pooping in public.
Over the last two decades most urban creeks have been reverted
from straight, lifeless channels back to more naturalized
streams that still provide flood protection but are now
abundant with trees, grasses and wildlife. … Despite these
tremendous advances, the 150 creeks in the Russian River
watershed and the critters that live in them are vulnerable.
Water managers across the state face new and more extreme
challenges as the climate warms—from balancing the sometimes
conflicting needs of urban, agricultural, and environmental
water users to reducing risks from fires, floods, and droughts.
We talked to Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County
Water Agency, about how his agency is approaching these
challenges comprehensively, at the scale of the entire
watershed.
The city of Ukiah made its first delivery of recycled water
through its extensive Purple Pipe system this week, putting
about 2 million gallons of water reclaimed from local sinks,
showers and toilets into an irrigation pond just south of the
Ukiah Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Most people pass by storm drains day in and day out, giving
little thought to them as conduits to local waterways — and
ultimately, the Russian River in much of Sonoma County. An
alliance of local cities, special districts and the county
wants to change that. The coalition has launched a regional
campaign to raise public awareness about the link between
surface streets and local creeks…
The ban passed last week means that about 8,000 Russian River
property owners are now looking at how to repair or replace
substandard or failing residential sewage disposal systems when
the new law goes into effect next year.
Sonoma County has hired a new ombudsman, Alisha O’Laughlin, to
help river residents deal with the new maze of regulations
targeting older sewage disposal systems along the Russian River
and its tributaries. … O’Loughlin’s hiring coincides with
county efforts to implement its onsite wastewater treatment
system (OWTS) regulations and comply with state law…
The 110-mile Russian River and all its tributaries move through
many active communities and working lands which can affect
water quality. Some of the main categories of water quality
impacts can include chemicals, bacteria, sediment, and
temperature.
More than 90% of U.S. wine comes from California, despite
growth in other states’ production, and it’s putting a strain
on the environment. Throughout the region, wine producers say
they’re striving to save water and use less pesticides, among
other measures aimed at sustainable growing, as they face the
challenges brought on by the advance of climate change.
After a disaster, Sonoma Water will try to restore service as
quickly as possible. The agency already has installed isolation
valves so that it can cut off water around breaks and has some
emergency water reserves in place. It estimates that water
service could be restored in as few as three days after a
moderate earthquake. The grand jury concluded that was an
overly rosy prediction.
Last week three local entities — California Trout, Mendocino
County Inland Water and Power Commission (IWPC) and Sonoma
Water — announced they will be signing a project planning
agreement with the hopes of looking at pathways to relicense
the Potter Valley Project. The Potter Valley Project is a
hydropower project that sits in the middle of the Eel River and
Russian River watershed basins and is integral in providing
water to both Mendocino County and northern Sonoma County.
Even though the Russian River watershed has received roughly
130 percent of the average rainfall this season, it is time to
discuss the impacts of overwatered landscapes as the dry
weather returns and irrigation controllers turn on.
On Tuesday, May 21, the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County
Water Agencyand the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved
a plan to offset a fee that is likely to be imposed on
groundwater users in the Santa Rosa Plain… Under the plan,
the County and Sonoma Water would contribute up to $240,000
annually for three years to the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater
Sustainability Agency.
Residents whose homes were flooded will not be eligible for
financial aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
because state officials determined the amount of damage was
insufficient to qualify.
Two days of above-average spring rainfall in the North Bay have
forced Sonoma County officials to begin deflating the seasonal
dam across the Russian River, an about-face that comes less
than a week after the rubber dam was fully inflated to serve
the region’s drinking water system.
The February storms that swelled the Russian River to its
highest level in more than two decades did $23 million in
damage to Sonoma County roads, including more than 100
landslides and slipouts, leaving county crews and contractors
with a Herculean repair job that will take months to complete.
Facing a wave of opposition over proposed fees for using well
water, the directors of a little-known public agency backed
away from a decision Thursday and agreed to consider an
alternative plan that would exempt rural residents and cost
other groundwater users far less overall.
While flooding is clearly a problem, the extra vegetation that
thrives can lead to another problem. A hotter-than-average
summer – such as one fueled by climate change – can cause
vegetation to dry out faster. With all this natural kindling in
place, it doesn’t take much to start a fire.
You can’t see them. You can’t swim in them. But groundwater
aquifers are one of the most important sources of water in the
North Coast. … People who live in rural areas rely almost
exclusively on groundwater, and while cities in Sonoma County
get most of their water from the Russian River, groundwater
provides a critical back-up source that is used during droughts
or in emergencies.
A Geyserville property owner who launched a medical cannabis
farm has agreed to pay $245,000 in fines and penalties for what
Sonoma County prosecutors said was improper water diversion,
unpermitted grading and site work that harmed streams in the
Russian River watershed.
One month after destructive flooding tore through Sonoma
County, residents are waiting for the state to decide if it
will ask the federal government for a disaster declaration — a
move that they say can bring them much-needed financial aid.
Russian River environmental watchdog Brenda Adelman accepted a
water stewardship award from California’s North Coast Regional
Water Quality Control Board last month in a ceremony at NCRWQCB
headquarters in Santa Rosa.
We love our Russian River for its eternal beauty, its nurturing
forces, its quenching properties, its recreation and play and
its renewing spirits. We love our river — except when we don’t.
And right now we are distraught over the destruction its
breached muddy torrents visited upon us yet again.
While handing out at the Guerneville Safeway store $50 grocery
gift cards to residents affected by last week’s flood, Jeniffer
Wertz was forced to turn away several people Sunday after
running out of cards. “It was heartbreaking,” said Wertz, a
volunteer for the nonprofit Russian River Alliance. For people
whose homes, cars or businesses were damaged by the worst
flooding along the Russian River in two decades, local
nonprofit leaders say, the need for financial help is
immediate.
Behind the initial damage toll of $155 million from last week’s
Russian River flood is some positive news: only 35 homes and
businesses have been red-tagged as uninhabitable. After the
last major Russian River flood, in 2006, 66 homes and
businesses were red-tagged. … The steadily declining numbers
reflect three decades of progress in fortifying river
communities to withstand floods, most notably an ongoing
program to elevate homes.
Santa Rosa officials said Tuesday that managers at the city’s
wastewater plant have been forced to release at least 250
million gallons of treated sewage into two creeks and the
nearby Laguna de Santa Rosa amid record inflow to the facility
that began in last week’s storm. The three-day deluge pushed
more than five times the normal flow of wastewater and runoff
into the city’s Laguna de Santa Rosa plant. It was the highest
inflow ever recorded at the site, according to the city.
The powerful storm that swept over Sonoma County last week
caused an estimated $155 million in damage to homes,
businesses, roads and other public infrastructure, county
officials announced Saturday. The updated assessment came at
the end of a week marked by the largest flood on the lower
Russian River in nearly a quarter century. Guernville and other
riverside communities took the heaviest blow, but flooding
elsewhere — in Sebastopol, Healdsburg and Geyserville — led to
widespread damage countywide.
But the river remains an unpredictable force, one that could
give rise to even more destructive floods in an era of
increasingly extreme weather, experts say. … County
Supervisor Lynda Hopkins has her sights on the opportunities to
tame floodwaters in the river’s middle reaches, starting near
Windsor and upstream, where it broadens and meanders more
freely in a floodplain less constricted by roads and other
development.
A Northern California river flooded 2,000 homes, businesses and
other buildings and left two communities virtual islands after
days of stormy weather, officials said Wednesday. The towns of
Guerneville and Monte Rio were hardest hit by water pouring
from the Russian River, which topped 46 feet (13 meters) late
Wednesday night. It hadn’t reached that level for 25 years and
wasn’t expected to recede again until late Thursday night.
The Russian River has surpassed flood levels after an
extraordinary 48 hours of rainfall, and by Wednesday morning
the waters had blocked all roadways into and out of the town of
Guerneville. By 6 a.m., all routes out of the 4,500-person town
of Guerneville were blocked by the rising water, which was
creeping closer to 41 feet — nine more than the flood level of
32 feet — with an additional five feet expected.
With each storm, the rain-swollen Russian River is washing away
more of a steep, muddy bank perilously close to River Road near
Geyserville, prompting Sonoma County supervisors to approve
Tuesday an emergency repair estimated at $250,000. Should the
river wipe out the road, about 400 residents of Alexander
Valley, a famed wine grape growing area, would be cut off from
a connection to Highway 128 leading southwest to Geyserville
and Highway 101.
Heavy rains this week left Lake Mendocino, the North Bay
region’s second-largest reservoir, with an extra 2 billion
gallons of water that until now officials would have been
obliged to release into the Russian River and eventually the
Pacific Ocean. Thanks to a $10 million program that blends
high-tech weather forecasting with novel computer programming,
the Army Corps has the latitude to retain an additional 11,650
acre feet of water, and Lake Mendocino has now impounded a
little more than half that much.
Standing on a stone bridge overlooking Lagunitas Creek in west
Marin County, giddy onlookers observed a male coho salmon
swimming upstream toward a nesting area guarded by a female.
… This year’s salmon spawning season so far appears to
be a mixed bag, with some locations, such as Lagunitas Creek,
showing robust activity, and others, including the Russian
River in Sonoma County, falling short of expectations.
Dam operators are planning to store nearly 4 billion extra
gallons of water this winter in Lake Mendocino, the reservoir
near Ukiah that plays a critical role in providing water for
residents, ranchers and fish along the upper Russian River and
to communities in Sonoma and Marin counties.
Chris Brokate did not intend to spark a revolution in watershed
management when he hauled a load of trash from the Russian
River in his weathered Chevy pick-up in 2014. The Forestville
man simply spotted a need after winter storms flushed debris
from the river’s mouth onto the beach near the coastal
community of Jenner.
It has been a beloved summer destination for generations of
Northern California families, and a blue ribbon fishery for
steelhead and salmon. It has been mined, diverted, and dammed,
tapped for its water and used as a sewer. It has rampaged
during torrential winter storms and shrunken to a tepid trickle
during drought.
To some it’s a source of artistic inspiration. To others it’s
an endangered natural wonder in grave need of protection. But
to most who make an annual summer pilgrimage to the Russian
River — whether for an afternoon’s respite or a week’s true
escape — it’s a place to shed worldly concerns and embrace the
season’s mandate: relax.
In California’s small coastal streams, where hundreds of
thousands of Coho salmon once returned each year to spawn, most
wild populations now barely cling to survival. Habitat loss and
intensive water use have pushed them to the brink; now climate
change and increasing competition for water resources could
send them over the edge.
Sonoma County is poised to benefit from millions of dollars in
parks, water and land conservation funding from the new $4.1
billion state bond measure approved by California voters last
week. Proposition 68 will generate at least $400,000 for the
county’s Regional Parks system and half that amount for each
municipal park district in the county.
Public agencies are hopeful that a feverish effort to deploy
thousands of straw wattles and other barriers around burned
structures, charred hillsides and storm drain inlets prevented
some pollution from occurring with storm runoff. But strategic
stream testing will help measure their success as water quality
engineers and experts gear up for what will be a long-term
campaign to protect water resources and restore scorched
watersheds into the rainy season and beyond.
Signs at Russian River beaches warning of the potential for
harmful blue-green algae in the water were being taken down
Thursday, after tests failed to detect the presence of
algae-related toxins in recent weeks. Only highly diluted
concentrations of an algae-produced toxin were found in the
river this summer even when tests sporadically came back
positive, health officials said.
North Coast water regulators are taking another run at a
comprehensive program to prevent bacterial contamination of the
Russian River, one that includes provisions likely to have
significant impacts for thousands of homeowners dependent on
aging septic systems.
The Russian River tested clean this week for a toxin related to
blue-green algae that prompted cautionary signs at 10 popular
beaches last month and in each of the past two summers. The
river remains open to swimming and other recreation.
A cold, clear stream that provides some of the last refuge for
wild coho salmon in Sonoma County lies at the center of a
dispute over logging plans in the forested hills above
Healdsburg.
Sonoma County officials posted caution signs at beaches up and
down the Russian River on Wednesday alerting visitors to
positive test results for a potentially dangerous, naturally
occurring neurotoxin linked to harmful algae, a problem
surfacing around Northern California this summer.
Monte Rio Beach on the lower Russian River was declared safe
for swimming and was reopened to the public Wednesday, just in
time for a heat wave that’s expected to send temperatures back
toward the century mark this weekend.
Sonoma County health officials have closed Monte Rio Beach on
the Russian River to swimming, wading and other activities that
would put visitors in direct contact with the water because of
elevated bacterial levels in the wake of an extremely busy
holiday weekend.
The Russian River surged to its highest level in a decade
Wednesday and deepened flooding woes, while across the North
Coast, crews in cities as well as rural areas scrambled to
re-open roads, clear toppled trees, restore power and bring
normalcy back to a region battered by four days of punishing
winter storms.
Flooding and mudslides triggered by weekend storms forced
evacuations Monday from threatened homes along the Russian
River, ahead of a second storm bearing down Tuesday on the
North Coast, bringing the potential for several more inches of
rain.
The most powerful in a series of winter storms lashed
Northern California and Nevada on Sunday with heavy rains and
strong winds, causing widespread flooding, downing trees and
unleashing mudslides.
Hundreds fled homes as a massive winter storm packing heavy
rain, damaging winds and lightning caused mudslides and
widespread flooding in Northern California and Nevada.
People who want to give feedback about a plan to cut summertime
flows in the Russian River and Dry Creek will have two
opportunities to do so in person this week at public hearings.
A massive concrete structure, built to withstand floods and
earthquakes beside the Russian River near Forestville, is the
latest step toward restoring the river’s beleaguered salmon and
steelhead populations.
Interested parties appear likely to get the extra time many
have requested to review and comment on some 3,600 pages of
study for a plan to permanently reduce summertime flows in the
Russian River and Dry Creek to benefit imperiled fish species.
Critics of a permanent plan to curtail summertime flows in the
Russian River blasted Sonoma County supervisors Tuesday, with
many saying the long-anticipated shift in water management
would devastate lower river communities and economies dependent
on recreation and tourism.
Wednesday’s trip from the foot of Lake Mendocino to a ranch
south of Ukiah marked the start of the “Headwaters to Ocean
Descent,” organized by LandPaths and Russian Riverkeeper and
led by Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore, with the first
three-day float this week and two more segments planned in
September and October.
Kelly Bertoli debated Thursday whether to take her dog to the
Russian River, where signs at beaches warn visitors about
potentially toxic blue-green algae lurking in the water.
The first of a pair of storms pounded Northern California on
Thursday, bringing heavy bands of rain to the North Bay,
causing minor flooding and mudslides, and raising the specter
that the flood-prone Russian River might spill its banks.
California regulators have ended mandatory water cutbacks along
tributaries of the Russian River, but will continue to require
property owners to report how much water they use.
