Water Facts

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

Did you know...

The North County agricultural valleys have gravelly, alluvial soils and very shallow groundwater levels (between 5 to 30 feet from the surface); thus, the soils have very little filtering capacity.
Wastewater disposed on this soil will leach or percolate through these soils directly into the groundwater, which interacts directly with Dry Creek and the Russian River, contaminating groundwater, surface water and our wells.
Santa Rosa's wastewater quality does not pass the California Toxics Rule limits - in other words, there are heavy metals, soluble organic chemicals and other California Toxic Rule compounds in the wastewater (boron, selenium, copper, mercury, etc).
- --Currently Santa Rosa does not test for a number of chemicals, including chemicals of emerging concern. For example, Santa Rosa does not test for perchlorate, yet studies have shown that this chemical is taken up in lettuce and other crops.
- --The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board requires that Santa Rosa take steps to meet the California Toxics Rule limits by 2010 - yet the analysis does not recommend additional treatment for wastewater disposed on soil.
The Environmental Impact Report states that there is "no impact" based on the fact that Santa Rosa is not currently required to test for these chemicals. This is unacceptable. These ag- reuse projects propose to bring billions of gallons of wastewater for disposal on our lands over the course of decades, yet there are no studies as to the cumulative impact of urban-generated wastewater disposal on soils, crops, premium grapes, organic fruits and vegetables, groundwater quality or wells.
Projects are being proposed with no analyses of the economic impact to our region and Sonoma County: What are the impacts of wastewater irrigation on the perceptions of the quality of Sonoma County grapes, reputation of the wine? What is the potential harm to the tourism industry, or the impact on our livelihoods and the economics of Sonoma County?

Some actions taken by the DCVA Board:

Feb 8,2007: Approved development and use of expert testimony; with decision made on a case by case basis.
March 8, 2007 Approved DCVA's membership in the Clean Water Coalition.
May 7, 2007 (Special Meeting) Approved DCVA Board position opposing wastewater disposal in Dry Creek Valley.
May 16, 2007: Wine Growers of Dry Creek (WDCV Board) voted to oppose the NSCARP on the basis of the quality of wastewater and the potential negative impacts their grapes, wine and groundwater.
Dec 13, 2007: Approved development of expert testimony, per Feb 8 Board Decision. Request Dr. Nick Johnson prepare a hydrology report regarding impact of applying treated wastewater to Dry Creek soils.
January 10, 2008 Board Discussion: Clean Water Coalition Funding Allocation Proposal. Obtain agreement on a means to allocate costs for expert testimony development and legal comment on environmental documents among AVA, SRNA, DCVA, WASA, RiverKeeper and other organizations, with the decision of a member organization to participate made on a case by case basis.

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