The Russian River Watershed Protection Committee is a nonprofit corporation organized to work in the public interest on river protection issues. We have been in existence since 1980 and originally incorporated under the name River Citizens Sewer Committee. We have 501 (c) (4) tax status. Our Board of Directors consists of seven members who work primarily on a volunteer basis. We have no formal office or staff. We have a mailing list of about 1200 names to whom we distribute mailers every other month giving updates on the current issues affecting the Russian River. For information contact RRWPC Chair, Brenda Adelman at P.O. Box 501, Guerneville, CA 95446-0501.

RRWPC began its existence through involvement with Guerneville sewer issues in the late 1970. In 1985, the massive (800 million gallon) illegal dump of Santa Rosa’s sewage and secondary wastewater caused a giant furor in our community. We have tracked Santa Rosa wastewater issues ever since. But we have also branched out to other related issues that concern the Russian River including water supply, general plan policies, water diversions, flooding, water quality, Regional Water Quality Control Board waste discharge requirements, Endangered Species Act issues, toxic issues, agricultural irrigation issues, and much more.

We continue to work on and with many committees, councils, groups, and individuals concerning these issues. We study critical documents, write commentaries, attend hearings and provide testimony. We have contributed articles to numerous publications including the Russian River Times, the Press Democrat, the Sonoma West Times and News, and the North Bay Progressive. We recently gave extensive commentaries on the Water Resources Element of the Sonoma County General Plan, the 303(d) listing of impaired water bodies process of the State Water Board, the Russian River County Sanitation District treatment plant expansion and Santa Rosa Incremental Recycled Water Plan.

We attend, and often report on, meetings of the Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities, the Santa Rosa City Council, the Board of Supervisors, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and State Water Resources Board, the Sonoma County Planning Commission, the Eel-Russian River Commission, etc. We serve on the Russian River Watershed Council, the Citizens Advisory Committee for State Parks, and the Laguna de Santa Rosa Committee. We are grateful to have been honored with many awards for our work.

[Web Note: RRWPC archives are searchable via EC Search. This tool locates specific items quickly, even though searches are not limited exclusively to RRWPC section.]