Dry Creek Valley Association

News

by Lou Preston

Acting on a motion by the Dry Creek Valley Association’s Board of Directors, President Ed Wilson fired off a letter to the California State Water Resources Control Board to protest the planned disposal of substantial quantities of Sonoma County’s treated waste water in the Dry Creek Valley watershed. The project, dubbed the Northern Sonoma County Agricultural Reuse Project or NSCARP, is in the draft stage of the State-mandated environmental impact review.

Your DCVA Board has devoted many meetings and long hours to the subject of potential water degradation in our Valley. The unfortunate consequence of municipal and County growth is the need to do something with the vastly increasing volumes of waste water. The grand plan to pump it all to the Geysers for deep well injection quickly became insufficient and agricultural areas have become the next target for the sweep-it-under-the-rug approach of government agencies.

Some Facts you need to know:

The DCVA's concerns are driven by our mission "to protect and enhance the natural resources, rural aspects and agricultural heritage of the Dry Creek Valley and its watershed, while safeguarding the interests of the Valley's present and future community".

The Sonoma County Water Agency (which also is the County Board of Supervisors in a different guise) is well along in its plans to redistribute Santa Rosa and other urban entities' treated wastewater for agricultural reuse. Target areas include Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley. The project, as detailed by the recently published draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) includes:

19 wastewater reservoirs totaling 11,200 acre-feet of storage
112 miles of transmission pipeline, and (undisclosed amount of distribution pipelines on private land
Numerous booster and distribution pump stations for conveying water from Geysers Pipeline to storage reservoirs and agricultural lands
Irrigation of 21,500 acres with treated wastewater in North County

Clean Water Coalition of Northern Sonoma County

Clean Water Coalition: An organization comprised of local groups and concerned individuals within the agriculture valleys in Northern Sonoma County. The Coalition represents citizens who live in the Alexander Valley, Dry Creek watershed or Middle Reach of the Russian River, and who depend on high-quality groundwater supplies for drinking, domestic uses and agriculture.

The Coalition is focused on preserving both groundwater and surface water quality and availability in the agricultural valleys upstream from the Sonoma County Water Agency drinking water collectors. These valleys are characterized by highly permeable alluvial soils and shallow groundwater resources. We advocate for stewardship of this public trust resource as our valleys form the drinking water aquifer that supplies the towns of Geyserville, Healdsburg, Windsor and the customers of the Sonoma County Water Agency.

Pure, naturally filtered water is essential to the health of the 20,000 people who rely on groundwater supplies in this aquifer, as well as the 700,000 municipal water customers in Sonoma and Marin Counties. Likewise, clean water is vital to agriculture, and agriculture is important to the economic health of Sonoma County.

Mission: To provide a strong voice for local citizens and civic organizations in public discussions about water and wastewater projects.