Congressional vote aids Dry Creek’s restoration

Local elected leaders were celebrating the passage this week of an omnibus congressional funding bill that should speed up critical environmental restoration work along six miles of Healdsburg’s Dry Creek.
The Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) of 2013 allows the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue working with the Sonoma County Water Agency to enhance six miles of endangered Coho salmon habitat along Dry Creek between Warm Springs Dam and the Russian River.
Passage of the act speeds up the ongoing Dry Creek restoration effort and helps “make sure Sonoma County isn’t left on the hook for building an unnecessary $300 million pipeline,” said Congressman Mike Thompson who represents the 5th Congressional District that includes a portion of Sonoma County, including the city of Santa Rosa.
It is hoped the estimated $48 million expense of improving six miles of Dry Creek fish habitat will obviate the far more expensive and controversial Dry Creek pipeline that would run for several miles across private property from Warm Springs Dam to the Russian River, say federal and county officials.
Dry Creek habitat restoration work is required under the Russian River Biological Opinion (B.O.) issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2008 to protect Russian River Coho salmon, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout that are all listed as endangered or threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
Water released from Warm Springs Dam into Dry Creek in the summer to supply the Water Agency’s Wohler Bridge pumps flows too fast for survival of juvenile fish downstream, said the B.O. One proposed solution is the Dry Creek bypass pipeline, a project now estimated to cost $300 million. That expense that would fall at least in part on the Water Agency’s 600,000 customers in Sonoma and Marin counties.
If the creek enhancements succeed, the pipeline won’t be necessary.
Without last week’s passage of WRRDA, “It was unclear whether the Army Corps would carry out their responsibilities as required by the Russian River Biological Opinion, leaving the Sonoma County Water Agency solely responsible for fulfilling this work by 2016,” said Thompson, in a media announcement of WRRDA’s passage in the House of Representatives.
The scope of work required under the biological opinion “can only be achieved with the cooperation of the Army Corps,” said Thompson. “If the requirements made under the biological opinion are not met, Sonoma County would be required to build the $300 million pipeline to mitigate habit impacts.”
WRRDA was passed by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote of 417-3. The Senate passed a different WRRDA bill, S. 601 on May 15 by a bipartisan vote of 83-14. The bills are now expected to go to a conference committee to resolve their differences, according to prepared media statements this week from Thompson and Congressman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who represents the 2nd Congressional District that includes the Healdsburg area. Both congressmen voted for the bill that funds U.S. Army Corps projects nationwide at a projected cost of approximately $8.2 billion over the next ten years.
Huffman characterized WRRDA as “a strong bipartisan bill that authorizes Army Corps of Engineers funding for improvements to ports, waterways and projects tied to flood protection, drinking water, dams and levees, and environmental restoration.”
Despite concerns with lax environmental provisions in the overall bill, “I am very pleased that the bill allows Sonoma’s important work with the Corps on the Russian River to move forward,” said Huffman. “This is a win for river restoration and will help protect a cost-effective water supply for Sonoma County.”
The Sonoma County Water Agency also praised passage of WRRDA as a means to complete Dry Creek work expected to continue for several years before the six-mile enhancement project is done.
Earlier this year Sonoma County Supervisors OK’d spending more than $4 million on fish habitat enhancements along approximately 3,500 linear feet of Dry Creek in the vicinity of the Lambert Bridge.