Gravel Mining

            For the ten years between 1981 and 1990, in the Alexander Valley Reach alone, there was an annual average extraction rate of 726,500 tons. This represented, according to the Sonoma County Planning Department an annual average loss of material of 630,000 tons.  The overall down cutting of the Russian River channel is a byproduct of the cumulative extraction rate of instream and terrace gravel mining.  SCWA staff used to participate and comment on gravel applications, however, since 1991, they have stopped with no published reason for doing so.

            In the September, 1994 revision of the Aggregate Resources Management Plan (ARM) for Sonoma County provided for enough mining sites and aggregate resources to address the future demands for aggregate uses through the year 2010.  The plan anticipated that the range of demand would be a low of 75 million tons to 175 MT.  

            The Stated Goals and Objectives of the new ARM Plan were: 

  1. Assist existing quarry operations to increase production for high-quality uses in an environmentally sound manner.
  2. Facilitate new or expanded quarry operations at designated sites or at other locations with resources which can meet the needs for aggregate in an environmentally sound manner.
  3. Provide for terrace resources to meet the needs for high quality uses for a ten-year period and terminate terrace mining at the end of that period.
  4. Manage instream resources on a sustained yield basis for high quality uses in a manner which reduces bank erosion, maintains flood flow capacities, protects adjacent uses, and minimizes impacts on fisheries, vegetation and wildlife.
  5. Continue and expand monitoring programs so that more information is available for future decisions about terrace and instream impacts and alternative management policies and approaches. 
  6. Reevaluate gravel extraction methods and production periodically to assess options which further reduce environmental impacts and land use conflicts and better meet the County's aggregate needs.
  7. Change specifications, standards and practices where possible so that quarry rock will be more competitive with instream and terrace sources.
  8. Reduce the need for additional aggregate through utilization of recycled and substitute materials, change in development standards, and other means possible.
  9. Encourage the retention of locally produced aggregate for use within Sonoma County.

            The SCWA is to review gravel extraction permit applications. The only comment by the SCWA during the ARM update was a statement clarifying whether or not they were the repository for the documentation of river profiles.  Of staff members of water district contractors, who are dependent on the SCWA, who did comment on the proposed ARM plan, stating their concerns with the proposed process, two were fired or one was forced to retract what was said.