Trickle of a turnout for water restrictions meeting

Despite $500 per day fine, only half of water users provide required data
About 65 people assembled on Nov. 2 at the Santa Rosa Veterans’ Memorial building for the latest presentation on the eminence of saving Coho salmon from extinction.
Water officials presented the results of a campaign, which requires everyone in the county’s watersheds to provide data on their water use, regardless of its source.
Although this is a hot button issue for people with wells that see the data collection as an intrusion of their privacy, the meeting proved to be far less intense than the first meeting in May where an overflow crowd of more than 200 hammered state water officials.
“In some respects this has raised folk’s awareness of where their water comes from and how it’s being used,” said Erin Regazzi of the State Water Resources Control Board.
Speakers at the meeting praised residents in the Dutch Bill, Green Valley, Mark West and Mill Creek tributaries who have been reducing water use.
However, during public comment, several people continued a common complaint that vineyards, specifically, are not required to conserve water or keep track of their water use.
During public comment, Russ Messana, owner of Bastioni Vineyards in the Mark West tributary, stood up for his fellow grape growers, stating that at meetings with vineyard operators, water saving is the “the number one topic.”
 “There are some bad apples,” admitted Messana who asked the audience if any of them had lost $100,000 in annual income by cutting back on water use. The wine grape grower says he has gone from 86 tons of fruit from two years ago, to 36 tons this year on his 20 acre vineyard.
“And it’s because I’m not watering as much,” said Messana. Grape growers in the tributaries are also required to fill out and submit the water information order.
The water board staff has conducted 23 field inspections and has served 10 warnings to residents that had been watering their lawns. Although the locations of the healthy, watered lawns were not given, pictures of two of the lawns were shown at the Tuesday night meeting.
The water board also received five complaints from residents about neighbors wasting or using water in violation of the emergency regulations.
10,100 people received an information order in the four tributaries affected by the emergency drought regulation. The order asked people about their types of water use and to estimate the amount of water they use each month.
Only about half of those sent the information order have responded, so far. Corinne Gray with the Department of Fish and wildlife said the water board intends to continue to pursue compliance with the mandatory information gathering and issuing a $500 per day fine is a possibility for those that do not fill out and submit the form.
Water board officials have received more than 2,000 calls and 500 emails from area residents with questions about the program or in need of help navigating the online order form.
Water officials admitted the online form created was confusing for many people, apologizing for the difficulty of form.
Regazzi also addressed complaints from people in the tributary areas who were sent the letter and called it threatening.
“The letter did have a serious tone. Compliance with the information order isn’t voluntary but we did want to make sure folks understood what they were being asked to do as well as the ramifications if they didn’t comply and provide the requested information,” said Regazzi.
More than half of the people living in the West County who were required to submit information about their water use from wells or water providers did not comply with the state water board demand for data.
In Dutch Bill Creek, 51.8 percent of the people in the area required to respond to the information form did not respond to the order in any way.
Gray showed Power Point images on the increasingly dire situation for fish in Sonoma County. According to the data presented, West County waterways that fish live in have been going dry earlier as the drought has taken its toll. This year, tributaries went dry in July.
Camp Meeker appears to have been a success, in contrast to Green Valley Creek where efforts to save the fish came too late.
By pumping ground water from wells drilled into the sand and rock below the riverbed of the Russian River into Dutch Bill creek, DFW believes fish were saved from certain death.
Gray also presented data on fish that the DFW believed were saved by individual residents and organizations running gravity fed piping to creek beds from personal reservoirs and other catchment bodies throughout the tributaries.
Funding is now in place to reimburse people who purchase piping to run piping to creek beds and in some cases, energy costs to pump the water.
Officials are calling efforts a success and said that they have learned it takes less water than previously thought to keep the fish alive in Sonoma County’s tributaries.
“Almost everybody is asking: With all the trouble that we went through, was it worth it? And we have more fish alive this year than what we would have without it,” said Gray.
Emergency water regulations in the face of the drought were adopted June 17, 2015 and have been in effect since July 6 through April 1, 2016.
The regulations put a ban on watering lawns and other ornamental plants with potable water. The next meeting will be on Dec. 17 at 3 p.m. at the North Coast Water Quality Control Board Hearings Room in Santa Rosa.