Ground Water Development           Ground water yields comprise about 40 percent of the water in use in California and comprises 17 million acre-feet per year in usage.  Geologists estimate that 90 percent of the world's usable supply of water occurs as ground water.  Ground water usually occurs as water between pore spaces of sediments and layers of these sediments of sand, gravel silt and clay make up area aquifers.  Ground water basins underlie almost half of California's land areas.  Ground water has a number of advantages; it is not as likely to be exposed to pollution as surface waters, reduced rates of loss due to evaporation, and aquifers act as natural filter systems removing disease organisms and sedimentation (but not nitrates).            An examination of state and federal reports by the director of technical services in the National Water Wells Association in 1978, found that there are 20 million acre-feet of water basins beneath Sonoma County.  He stated that the yield would be 200,000 acre-feet per year without threat of depleting the aquifers.  Then SCWA chief engineer, Gordon Miller disputed the fact and advocated the building of Warm Springs Dam projected to yield 115,000 acre-feet annually.            The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey performed a study of potential sources of water supply in the Sonoma County area.  That study indicated that approximately one and a half million acre-feet of water exists in a natural storage basin overlying the Santa Rosa plain within a depth of 200 feet.   This is equal to the total flow of the Russian River in one year.  Natural recharge of this area occurs from rainfall, making it a renewable resource of natural filtered high quality water.  The groundwater basin in the Alexander Valley has an estimated storage capacity of 495,000 acre feet according to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) in 1975.  The Dry Creek and Middle Reach basin has been estimated by the DWR for over one million acre feet in Dry Creek, Healdsburg and Windsor and over 16 million feet for the entire basin.  The depth of the Middle Reach is probably greater than that of the Alexander Valley.            A Division of Water Rights study and U.S. Geology report #108 described the major aquifer in the Santa Rosa plain as located at 1400 feet.  A model by the DWR states that the aquifer is under pressure and will push water to within 200 feet of the surface for pumping.  The Merced formation of soil comprising most of the Sebastopol sandy loams folds under the Santa Rosa plains to form this aquifer at 1400 feet.  The Agency could recharge the aquifer in winter by ponding along the Cotati Intertie using the 50% unused capacity of the Russian River in winter.  The injection system could take advantage of high percolation rates in Merced soil similar to the system used in the Santa Clara Valley where 100,000 acre feet of water is recharged by percolation every year.  Recent studies by the SCWA indicate that aquifer injection in the Rohnert Park area resulted in influence of sulphur compounds.  Rohnert Park, reliant on groundwater supply, chose to insure against overdraft by contracting for one million gallons per day (MGD) from the SCWA Aqueduct System.            Another area of historical and geographic record in the SCWA assessment of groundwater began in 1967 when the Board of Supervisors directed then head, Gordon Miller to try to locate groundwater resources for the city of Occidental.  The project was turned over to two staff engineers who didn't make correct identification of the rocks at their chosen site of test well drilling.  Their well only produced 380 gallons per day while the average person uses about 150 gallons per day.  The unfortunate result from this one test was the agency contention per local area geologist, Eugene Boudreau, that they concluded there is no water in the ground and so the resultant solution was to build a pipeline to bring in Russian River water.            In Gene Boudreau's book, Many Splendored Things, the issue was raised that the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources of the University of Arizona analyzed the Corps Environmental Impact Statement on Warm Springs Dam proposal and published in 1976 a statement that the assessment for the Dam was incomplete without an assessment of regional water demands and supplies with the present and future use of ground water.  Furthermore they stated that the EIS alternatives failed to consider ground water and there was no description of the aquifers nor estimates of economic or cost comparisons.  Boudreau further noted that during the 1976-77 drought, all towns in the county that relied on surface water had to be rationed and towns reliant on ground water did not have any rationing.  During the time of that drought, due to decrease water supplies, the SCWA drilled three wells in the Santa Rosa plain and they produced at a rate of 1,200 gallons per minute. He concluded that for a cost of half a million the wells could have produced 12, 000 acre-feet per year while the ultimate level of Warm Springs Dam (due to siltation) could produce 95,000 acre-feet for a cost of $230 million.  In 1995, debt payment on Warm Springs began. Boudreau asks that the County declare its Warm Springs contract with the Corps be declared null and void since it was fraudulently promoted by the Corps, the SCWA and the California Department of Water Resources, and asks for our taxpayers money back.