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Agency Background and Pending
EIR
The
Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) is a special district
created by the California State Legislature with water
supply, flood control, sanitation, electrical energy and
incidental recreational control powers. The Agency has
two principal water supply functions that are the regulation
of the flow of the Russian River and Dry Creek, and releases
from Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma. The Agency owns
and operates a water production and transmission system
which provides municipal water supply for urban areas in
Sonoma and Marin Counties. The Agency is responsible
to maintain instream flows based on criteria established by
Decision 1610 between the California Department of Fish and
Game (DFG) and the SCWA which was adopted by the State Water
Resources Control Board (SWRCB) in 1986. Instream
flows were based primarily upon maintaining historical flows
for canoeing on the Russian River and to avoid the
de-watering of Lake Sonoma. Decision 1610 limits the
SCWA's total annual diversions and rediversions to 75,000
acre feet. In a normal weather year, SCWA must
maintain flows of 125 cfs in the lower river.
Total water
demands on the Russian River by all users, including demands
on the tributaries is estimated to be 105,000 to 110,000
acre feet per annum (afa). Approximately 39,000 to
48,000 afa is upstream from Dry Creek and 64,000 is
downstream from Dry Creek. Future use based on current
land practice projections within General Plans of water user
cities will result in 50,000 to 60,000 afa upstream of Dry
Creek and 120,000 afa downstream of Dry Creek.
SCWA is the
wholesale supplier of water for eight retail contractors,
including the City of Santa Rosa, City of Petaluma, North
Marin Water District, Valley of the Moon Water District,
City of Sonoma, City of Cotati, Forestville County Water
District, and the City of Rohnert Park. Water
entitlements in the SCWA Russian River-Cotati Intertie
Aqueduct are based on the pipeline capacity owned by each
member agency. The proportions are as follows: Santa Rosa
55%, Petaluma 19%, North Marin 12%, Valley of the Moon 5%,
Sonoma 4%, Cotati 2%, Forestville CWD 2% and Rohnert Park
1%.
SCWA is a special district formed by Chapter 994
of the State Statues of 1949 and operates under the
direction of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors acting
as the Agency's Board of Directors. The SCWA is not
restricted to expanding the water supply to its present
customers nor is it restricted to using the bond money for
supplying only Sonoma County. It can build an aqueduct
for any City, County or developer or group of developers who
will sign a contract and guarantee repayment of the bond
money. Since SCWA is a water wholesaler, it has
very little control over the end use of the water it
supplies.
SCWA operates the Russian River Project which
consists of the storage of water in Lake Mendocino on the
East Fork of the Russian River and at Lake Sonoma on Dry
Creek. The SCWA rediverts water released from storage at
Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma. They use a
series of pumps at Wohler and Mirabel Park to directly
divert water from the Russian River and the East Fork of the
Russian River. The pumping capacity of Wohler
Collectors No. 1 and 2 is 30 million gallons per day or MGD;
the Mirabel Collectors 3, 4 & 5 have intake facilities
for 62 MGD. Installation of Wohler Ranney
collectors #1 & 2 were supervised by the Rainey method
Western Corporation. The Mirabel or Ballard and
Meredith collectors were installed by Agency engineers. The
Ranney collectors were originally rated at 40 million
gallons but due to the river gravel depletion, less water
reaches the lateral pipes due to loss of permeability.
Lessening of gravel is the result of gravel mining upstream
and the reduction of replenishment due to dams upstream
stopping the flow of gravel downstream.
SCWA operates aqueduct systems which presently
serves south Sonoma County and North Marin County. An
early water permit right under Decision 1030 included an
agreement between SCWA and the Department of Fish & Game
(DFG) dated August, 1959 set the minimum flows as 25 cubic
feet per second (cfs) below Coyote Dam; to the lesser of 150
cfs or the inflow to Lake Mendocino at the Forks; and 125
cfs below Mirabel Park. Decision 1416 from 1973 allows
storage of 245,000 acre feet per annum (afa) from Dry Creek
in Warm Springs Dam (Lake Sonoma) and included an agreement
from February, 1970, between SCWA and DFG which basically
requires a minimum flow in Dry Creek of 25 cfs from April 1
to November 30, and between 50 cfs and 75 cfs from December
1 to March 31. The export of stored water for use
outside the Russian River watershed was made subject to all
present and future appropriations for use within the
watershed.
SCWA in 1993, began public scoping meetings in
response to the Notice of Preparation of Environmental
Impact Report (EIR) for the Water Supply and Transmission
System Project, addressing extended water appropriation.
SCWA may choose to fulfill future water needs through an
application to appropriate unappropriated water or by
altering existing permits. Under California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA), the SCWA is acting as the Lead Agency
and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) will be
Responsible Agency on the EIR.
A Lead Agency is normally the agency with
general governmental powers, such as a city or county rather
than an agency with a single or limited purpose such as a
district which will provide a public service, A
Responsible Agency is a public agency, other than the Lead
Agency, which has responsibility for carrying out or
approving a project. In a December, 1992 letter,
Ed Anton of the Division of Water Rights (DWR), found that
the SCWA must comply with its responsibilities under CEQA as
a Lead or Responsible Agency is to ensure compliance with
Section 15130 of Title 14, Calf. Code of Regulations and
must address cumulative effects. Thus all pending
applications for further water appropriations from the
Russian River are to be held in abeyance until a cumulative
impact assessment for the Russian River Basin is certified
by the State Water Board.
By March, 1993, in a letter the DWR stated that
the SCWA is to act as Lead Agency and SWRCB to be
Responsible Agency and that the pending EIR is to be both a
program EIR and a project EIR. As defined in CEQA
Section 15161, the most common type of EIR examines the
environmental impacts of a specific development
project. This type of EIR should focus primarily on
the changes in the environment that would result from the
development project. The EIR should examine all phases
of the project including planning, construction and
operation. Under Section 15165 and 15168, CEQA states,
where individual projects are, or a phased project is, to be
undertaken and where the total undertaking comprises a
project with significant environmental effect, the Lead
Agency shall prepare a single program EIR for the ultimate
project and whether the agency prepares one EIR for all
projects or one for each project, it shall in either case
comment upon the cumulative effect on the environment and
ensure consideration of cumulative impacts that might be
slighted in a case-by-case analysis.
Bob Beach, consultant to SCWA estimates that
for Russian River Water demands by 2010, the urban demand is
to be 141,716 afa and the agricultural demand is to be
47,030 afa. The SCWA provides domestic water to
280,000 residents of Sonoma County, 225,000 residents of
Northern Marin County and 35,000 Mendocino County
residents. The SCWA holds water rights permits to
divert Russian River flows and redivert water stored and
released from the Coyote Valley Dam (Lake Mendocino) and the
Warm Springs Dam (Lake Sonoma). Mendocino County interests
have a right to approximately 39,000 acre feet, and Sonoma
County interests have rights to about 72,800 acre feet and
Marin County rights are for 30,500 acre feet. The
North Marin Water District, serving the City of Novato and
the surrounding area, depends on the Russian River for its
water demand. The Marin Municipal Water District
(MMWD), which supplies the southern Marin County area,
depends on 15,000, out of its 40,000 water demands on the
Russian River water. It has implemented an 18 year
capital expenditure program to build facilities to deliver
Russian River water including $55.3 million for a new
facility and $30 million for expanded SCWA facilities.
The proposed water diversion alternative plans
as presented in 1993 will be evaluated in terms of
engineering, environmental, legal and economic
feasibility. The proposed plans are for full
utilization of the water supply from the existing Russian
River Project; desalination of San Pablo Bay water;
groundwater aquifer injection and withdrawal; new or
expanded dam reservoirs and groundwater resources likely in
the Russian River watershed at Knights Valley on Maacama
Creek and Franz Creek, plus new transmission systems and
facilities. The final technical report in combination
with the Final and Draft EIR will constitute the Agency's
Water Supply and Transmission System Plan.
As stated in Decision 1610, although SCWA holds
four appropriations for the Russian River Project, the
accounting of direct diversions and rediversions of stored
water is very complicated because East Fork Russian River
water must be accounted for separately after being
commingled and conveyed some 70 miles in the river.
The issue is further clouded by a difference of opinion as
to which waters should be considered as meeting the upper
river and lower river required minimum flows. SCWA
primarily controls the flows in the Russian River and
through Decision 1610, minimum flow standards provide
adequate protection for instream beneficial uses of water in
the Russian River during most water years. Significant
impacts were predicted to occur primarily in dry periods
with the most severe impacts tending to occur upstream of
Healdsburg. The SWRCB staff reported that "The
1985 demand level impacts were considered to be short-term
significant cumulative impacts, and the 2020 demand level
impacts were considered to represent long-term significant
cumulative impacts."
As reported in the Staff Analysis for the
Russian River Project in awarding the Decision 1610, the
concept of water conservation was broached. They found
that the regional water conservation was generally geared
toward obtaining voluntary efforts on the part of the
public. They reported that SCWA's diversions had a
significant reduction in 1977 during the drought but use
accelerated in 1984-85 probably due to increased
development. There was an expectation that the water
conservation program was to achieve a permanent 15%
reduction in water use by the year 2000. If there was
a future prolonged dry period in which water delivery is
impaired, that an additional 10-15% reduction could be
achieved. Further reductions beyond this would only be
possible in a major water shortage crisis and would not be
sustainable. It was pointed out that any saving of
water through water conservation in the SCWA's service area
would be mainly reflected in the amount of storage remaining
in Lake Sonoma because under the coordinated operation of
Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma, the required lower Russian
River needs including the SCWA's diversion would be
furnished from Lake Sonoma. The report further noted
that the conservation of water in SCWA`s service area will
have minimal impact on flows in the critical reach of the
Russian River between the Forks and Dry Creek. This is
because required minimum flows in this reach, rather than
SCWA's diversions, will be controlled during the summer
months. Of more importance in this reach of the river
is use of water by diverters along the river, over which the
Agency has no control. Sufficient data is not
available to make an analysis of actual direct diversion of
water from the Russian River by pre- and post-1949 users in
order to compare against a firm yield.
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