Legacy Fund: Interview with Richard Kagel

Richard Kagel and the Legacy Fund

By Lou Preston

This Thursday I interviewed Richard Kagel on his vision for the Dry Creek Legacy Fund. DCVA Board Member Kagel is the Fund's instigator, innovator, and implementer. This memo is to tell what it and he are all about. If you have browsed this website you already know that Dry Creek Valley is in trouble. As Richard puts it, we are in the crosshairs of individuals and agencies that hope to capitalize on our resources. In the past it was gravel. Today it is water and its brooding flip side, waste water.

Do you remember a few years ago when Sonoma County installed a pipeline to transport treated wastewater to the Geysers? That gaping hole in the ground roughly at the intersection of Highway 101 and Dry Creek Road? If you looked into the hole you might have puzzled over the big tee installed in the pipe with the business end pointing toward our Valley. What's that for?

Well what that's for is to shunt a significant volume of the treated waste water from Santa Rosa and other County cities up into our Valley and ultimately to trade it for our fresh water. The Geysers are already full up to here, even causing earthquakes to let off steam, and the County is looking for some other carpet to sweep its effluent under. Folks, we are that carpet. So here I give you Richard Kagel to let off his own steam and to encourage you to build up yours.

Lou Preston: Richard, would you tell us what the Legacy Fund is intended to do?

Richard Kagel: The short explanation is that it is a new fund created under our soon-to-be non-profit status to support the DCVA's efforts and programs to protect Dry Creek Valley. Water issues are part of it, but the DCVA Board will take a broader view of our Mission regarding community, rural aesthetics, as well as natural resources of our Valley.

LP: Where did the name come from?

RK: Our Board agreed that names that were being kicked around, like "War Chest", just didn't seem to fit our essentially contemplative and collaborative approach to problem solving? It was my wife Carla's idea, actually, thinking of our son's future here and his family to come. We are concerned about the legacy we are leaving for him and the next generation and the next.

LP: So what is the big deal about the reuse of waste water? I thought recycling was a good thing and green?

RK: It's a question of both quality and quantity. For the past 25 years, I have worked in the laboratory testing field involved in the analysis of water quality by testing for toxic contaminants. Municipal regulations and water treatment plants do deal with many of the known chemicals, but there remain thousands of chemicals of an unknown nature that are unregulated or escape the system. Santa Rosa is the seat of significant high-tech industry discharging materials that don't break down or that can degrade into even more toxic compounds. Even minute amounts in parts per billion can be significant.
LP: That doesn't sound very palatable. Isn't it safe?

RK: The irony is that recycling is the darling of environmental groups, the assumption that treated wastewater and its reuse is done safely. But we are just beginning to ask the right questions and no one has done the studies. Are vegetables grown on treated wastewater safe? We don't know. Of course in this situation it's not our water anyway, it's somebody else's. So it's not recycling, it's disposal.

LP: Is there anything particular to viticulture that needs to be part of this picture?

RK: As a matter of fact, many grape growers are dependent on overhead sprinklers, especially for frost protection. Modern wastewater treatment as in Santa Rosa does not use chlorine for disinfection of the effluent. Pipelines are dirty and a source for recontamination by pathogens which will then be sprayed throughout vineyard country.

LP: Like an aerosol?

RK: Like an aerosol, with the potential to infect you and me and our families.

LP: What about the quantity side?

RK: Well, one of the uses of the Legacy Fund will be to purchase the services of a professional hydrologist who will study the dynamics of the water table and aquifers in our Valley. From a similar study, performed in the Alexander Valley, we have learned several important things. It's hard to imagine when you consider just how much rain we get each year; but, this study shows that more waste water is planned for disposal than that same land recharges into the groundwater from rain each year. For Dry Creek Valley, the plan calls for two billion gallons of waste water a year.

LP: Wow!

RK: Yes, and our naturally heavy rains will push all that effluent into the water table. What doesn't accumulate in our soils will contaminate our aquifers.

LP: I can't imagine anyone in the valley would be in favor of this. How can the County do it if no one wants the water?

RK: The reality is that once the waste water is here there will be customers. Water is valuable. And besides it is state law in California that if treated waste water is available for farming it must be used in preference to fresh water. The current wisdom is that plants don't know the difference.

LP: Would you talk more about the impact on farming in Dry Creek Valley?

RK: Of course vineyards and wineries are the mainstay of farming in today's Dry Creek. That's what is keeping development at bay. Aside from the contamination of our soils and ground water I believe the biggest issue we will have to deal with is the image and reputation of our wines. Consumers have choices: if our wines are perceived as being tainted they will go elsewhere.

LP: How will they know? If it is illegal to say "BGH-free" on our milk bottles how can the presence or absence of treated waste water be discerned by the consumer?

RK: Because by law affected vineyard blocks will have to be posted. A big billboard that says "Irrigated With Non-Potable Water". Can you imagine how wine tourists will react to that?

LP: And that will place our industry and local economy in jeopardy.

RK: That's right. And once waste water is here, it'll be here forever. It's hard to turn that ship around.

LP: So, what are the alternatives. Composting toilets in Santa Rosa?

RK: Actually there is a very good alternative already in use in Southern California. It is micro-filtration and reverse osmosis. Without going into detail it removes everything but water from the wastewater.

LP: But it's expensive.

RK: It's expensive and it will take time and political will to implement it. Right now we have neither. So right now we need to buy time. Time to bring the County and the voters around to accepting the realities of water management in Sonoma County. The last thing the County should be doing is fouling its own nest. Dry Creek Valley is everybody's back yard and the source of all of our water. Santa Rosa residents should be as concerned as us residents.

LP: Then, the strategy of the Legacy Fund is to build the argument and a legal defense, if necessary. to prevent that initial foray of waste water into Dry Creek Valley. To buy time?

RK: That's right. To hold off the implementation of the County's water plan as long as possible. It's really a lame-brained idea, disposing of contaminants into a pristine watershed. Pubic opinion-the citizenry-is a powerful element. I've seen people become strongly against the redistribution of waste water once they understood the facts. That's what the Legacy Fund can help do.

LP: How can local residents and concerned citizens get involved in this effort?

RK: Well, clearly there's a need to be informed. My job as head of the Legacy Fund is to explain our challenge, needs, and alternatives, plus of course to accept contributions. People can contact me via the DCVA website. I care and I'm available.

LP: Thank you Richard, I'm awed by the enormity of the task but I'm also encouraged by your efforts and the commitment of the DCVA Board. Citizen involvement; I like that.

Concerned parties who would like to help or learn more may send an email to the DCVA, make a donation to the Legacy Fund by sending a check, or contact Richard Kagel directly. Let's show that we all care.

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