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The
mission of the Friends of the Russian River is to preserve,
restore and enhance the natural systems, and the economic
and public trust values of the Russian River, its riparian
corridor and the watershed that sustains it through citizen
action, public education, scientific research and expert
advocacy.
Donations
can be made to Friends of the Russian River at P. O. Box
1903, Sebastopol, CA, 95473 to help defray the reproduction
costs of this White Paper. If you are unable to make a
donation, please pass your copy on to as many people as
possible. Thank you for your assistance.
Executive Summary
Friends
of the Russian River (FORR) has prepared this paper on the
Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA or Agency) to enable the
public to be more aware of the Agency's responsibilities to
the public welfare. This paper encompasses definitions
of the Agency`s authority and what future actions are needed
by the agency, and by others in conjunction with the agency,
to restore, enhance and preserve the Russian River and to
reduce its impact on the Eel River. FORR advocates for a
comprehensive river watershed management plan.
The Sonoma
County Water Agency provides a functioning infrastructure
and financial organization for regional water supply,
wastewater management, and flood control. Water
agencies are also created to provide regulatory
efficiency. The Agency controls or directs actions in
the areas of Surface Water Development and Distribution,
Groundwater Development, Storm and Flood Control,
Sanitation, Recreation, Conservation and Land Use
Monitoring. The Agency has the potential to have the
greatest local influence on the health of the Russian River
and its` watershed. The Agency is administered as a
part of the authority of the County of Sonoma The General
Manager of the Agency reports directly to the Board of
Supervisors. There is no single, overall management
authority to carry out daily direction and overall
coordination. This function is in the hands of the
Board of Supervisors, with assistance from the County
Administrator, when so directed by the Board. The Agency,
unlike any other in county government, is exempt from being
required to respond to recommendations and questions raised
by a Grand Jury. The Agency is an inter-county
organization and this makes its spending immune to the
California constitution provision that limits the amount of
debt that a county can run up to a certain percent of its
income.
The budget
of the Agency is administered by the Office of County
Administrator of the County of Sonoma In 1991, Sonoma County
had six elected department officials, 35 appointed agency
and department heads and several contractual employees
appointed by various agencies and had approximately 4,000
employees. The 1994-95 grand total of all county
administered budgets was $606 million. The Agency
administration department anticipated expenditures of $67.4
million with a net fund balance of $24.7 million. In
addition the Agency administration or staffing and
operations support anticipated expenditures of $20 million
with a net fund balance of $6.6 million.
To better
understand the Agency, there needs to be a discussion of
its` primary purpose which is as a Water District.
Water Districts are local management users cooperatives
which are concerned, chiefly, with the collection,
distribution, use and contracting for surface and ground
water. Sonoma County's largest local water district is
the Sonoma County Water Agency. The Agency 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. The agency
supplies other users including Ya-Ka-Ama, Santa Rosa Jr.
College Agriculture Farm, Sonoma County Probation
Department, Sonoma County Airport, Redwood Fibre Glass,
Sis-Q Flying Service, California Division of Forestry,
Nation Flight Service, Inc., Redwood Aviation Enterprises,
Larkfield Water Company, County of Sonoma, Victor S. &
Mark H. Trione, Lawndale Mutual Water Company, Kenwood
Village Water Company, Sonoma State Hospital, Penngrove
Water Company, Feather Knoll Farm, Marvin Malacredi and C.
H. Christensen.
The Agency
provides domestic water to 280,000 residents of Sonoma
County, 225,000 residents of Northern Marin County and
35,000 Mendocino County residents for a total of 540,000
domestic water users. It 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. In
1961, the Board of Directors were given all rights to sell
bonds without the vote of the public.
The Agency
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 the Agency is a water
wholesaler, it has very little control over the end use of
the water it supplies.
Flood
Control consists of monitoring and managing stream flows in
the Russian River and major tributaries. The Agency plans,
constructs and maintains a system of flood control, drainage
and waterway facilities. Land use encompasses cooperation
with the County Planning Department, whereby it develops and
manages a program to monitor and regulate gravel
extraction's from the Russian River and its major
tributaries. Working in cooperation with the
various soil conservation districts, the Agency develops and
administers programs for erosion control, and the protection
and restoration of riparian corridors. The Agency
reviews, inspects and approves plans and designs of land
development projects for adequate drainage control and
erosion control.
Sanitation
was included as an Agency function in an Ordinance passed in
late 1994, that gave the Agency as of January 1, 1995 the
right to adopt uniform practices governing the use of
sanitation facilities of the Agency; the construction of
sanitation facilities; an industrial waste program; a
grease, oil and sand interceptor program and an enforcement
program, plus any administration procedures related to the
above. As of early 1995, the Agency employees
became a part of the County redesign effort. Agency
employees will became a part of the Permit and Resource
Management Department. The Engineering/Design of
Treatment Plants and Collector systems staff of the County
in turn moved to the Agency. The move meant that the
Agency employees now fall under Civil Service Guidelines,
the same as other County agencies' employees.
Like most
regulatory bureaucracies, the powers, responsibilities and
inner doings of the Agency are a mystery to most
people. Friends of the Russian River prepared this
White Paper on the Agency in order to increase the scrutiny
of it and to open it up to be more responsive to the public
interest in the biodiversity and health of the Russian and
Eel Rivers.
WATER
California receives a total of about 199 million acre
feet (MAF) of surface water per year, from precipitation
(193 MAF) and surface water inflow from adjacent states (6
MAF). About 58 percent of this is used by native vegetation
and un-irrigated lands, about 25 percent flows to the ocean
and neighboring states, 14 percent is diverted and 3 percent
recharges groundwater basins. California has
approximately 1, 400 Federal, State and private dams
effecting surface water resources. Existing surface
water reservoirs hold 43 MAF.
Approximately 40% of all water used in California is
groundwater. There are 450 groundwater aquifers or basins
that underlay about 40 percent of the land area and hold 250
MAF. Agriculture accounts for approximately 70 percent
of the total groundwater use and municipal/commercial
enterprises use about 30 percent more.
A major
concern to any California community is the source of its
potable water. Water is ultimately derived from rain
but the collection sources can be distant or nearby.
It can be collected from groundwater basins or surface water
such as rivers, as more recently evidenced, reclaimed from
municipal wastewater. Formerly "protected" watershed
lands and their attendant waters are now being sold or
leased by communities attempting to recover a portion of
their fixed capital investment. California's developed
water is controlled by public agencies under rules and
contracts that encourage territorial protectionism.
There are 1,000 local water districts in California.
In most areas, the water district holds the legal right to
the water used within its boundaries. Water users have
a right to a certain portion of the districts water supply
but hold no actual transferable water right. Water
districts finance their operations through a combination of
water assessments and property taxes and can earn income
from interest on portfolios held by the district or sales of
electrical power generated by the district.
In
combination with the pressure to develop and use water there
is the fear of overdevelopment and the use of water at rates
greater than the natural replenishment rate. The
regulations then result in restriction of pumping or in the
additional development of water impoundment, either
voluntarily or involuntarily through the application of the
law. Under the doctrine of appropriation in the
western United States, water belongs to the public and may
be appropriated for beneficial use so long as there is
surplus or "unappropriated" water. The State may
restrict development so that total withdrawals do not exceed
the natural recharge. Also, under the public trust
Doctrine, the fish and riparian uses must be protected for
the common good. How is there to be a balance?
A piecemeal
approach to the increased water diversion applications for
the Russian River has been quietly happening in the
background over the past years. Applications have been
stalled awaiting a cumulative impact analysis by the
SCWA. The real question of whether there is water to
appropriate or whether all the water is used up is being
avoided. The Russian River native fishery has been
ignored resulting in a devastating decrease in the number of
fish and a resultant loss of sport fishing and tourist money
which small cities like Cloverdale have traditionally relied
on. Rather than coordinating efforts through a
comprehensive review of the water appropriations and a
comprehensive River Management Plan, the State Water
Resources Control Board simply waits for the proper
applicant -- the applicant with the deepest pockets or the
most to lose -- to prepare the Environmental Impact Report
(EIR) to end all EIRs. Maybe, rather than an EIR
prepared by the one doing the water diversion, an
independent river analysis is needed.
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