County Pulls Plug on NSCARP!

EIR Certification Shelved

In a surprise move at the Board of Supervisors hearing on May 12, 2009, David Cuneo, Sonoma County Water Agency engineer, announced that his Agency was withdrawing its request that the controversial NSCARP Final EIR be certified at this time. Cuneo stated, “There are issues of funding and firm commitments to use of this water, and because of the remaining issues, our recommendation is to take no action at this time.”

In effect, the Water Agency acknowledged what the Clean Water Coalition has been saying for the past six months – that the Agency’s pet NSCARP project raised more questions than it had answered, and that it would be premature for the County to adopt the plan’s EIR in its present form.

Whether pulling the plug on this massive wastewater-recycling project means that Water Agency staff intends to resubmit a reworked plan in a few months time, or whether it means that the plan has been shelved indefinitely, was not clear. Supervisor Paul Kelley, chairman of the board that governs the Water Agency, told the audience crowding the meeting chamber that the decision to withdraw the plan from consideration was based on a recommendation from the County Counsel.

Fred Corson, PhD, past president of the DCVA and chairman of the Clean Water Coalition that led the opposition and challenged the adequacy of the NSCARP EIR, was satisfied with the Board’s decision to take no action on the EIR at this time. “This is an appropriate step, considering the incompleteness of the document,” said Dr. Corson. “If the specifics of this project, or its successor, become real in the future, we hope the environmental documentation presented at that time will provide a thorough and well reasoned analysis of potential impacts.”

- Richard Conrad

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