Urban Water Management Plan hearing on May 24

An update to the county’s major domestic water use plan that
drew fire from a dozen environmental groups and resulted in a court
fight five years ago, is headed for a new set of public hearings
later this month.
The Sonoma County Water Agency will hold a public meeting on its
Urban Water Management Plan at 2:10 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24 at the
county Board of Supervisors Chambers.
The 111-page plan updates the agency’s long-range look at future
water demands and supplies under different climate, environmental
and population growth assumptions. Required by state law, the plan
must include water shortage contingency plans and lists of water
conservation measures.
The plan draft concludes that the agency will meet all water
demands through the year 2035, except for single-dry years,
starting in 2015.
The Sonoma County Water Agency is a “wholesale” distributor of
water to 13 municipal and other local water suppliers in Sonoma and
Marin counties. In total, the water supply from Russian and Eel
river diversions, ground water and other sources supplies a total
population of 600,000 people.
Sebastopol and Healdsburg have their own wells and water
delivery systems and the Town of Windsor only draws a small portion
of water from the agency.
More relevant to these towns and residents is the impact or
changes to the flows and diversions in the Russian River mainstem,
Lake Sonoma and Dry Creek.
The SCWA’s updated plan is based on a series of far-sweeping
assumptions.
Chief among these is the assumption the State Water Resources
Control Board will permit the agency to increase its river
diversions from 77,000 acre feet annually to 80,000 acre feet by
year 2035.
The update master plan also assumes the Eel River diversions at
Potter Dam will be allowed to continue by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission.
River flows and diversions are likely to be reduced, the plan
concludes, by a federal decision to lower summer flows to protect
endangered salmon.
Also, the future supply of water will be increased with a series
of proposed water supply projects which are currently assured of
funding but yet to be approved.
Population projections in the plan see a 22 percent growth over
the next 25 years, an increase of 123,000 urban water users.
Five years ago, agency critics called the plan “too optimistic”
and called the report “nothing but paper water.”
The plan was challenged in Superior Court by a coalition of 14
environmentalist, farmer, fishermen and recreation business groups.
Judge Gary Nadler ruled in favor of the critics, ruling the plan
“understate” many constraints and future water supply demands.
In 2010, a state appellate court overturned Nadler’s ruling and
ruled the plan as adequate. The state court sided with the
“expertise and discretion” of the agency.
The proposed 2010 update of the county’s Urban Water Management
Plan is very similar to the 2005 plan, using most of the same
assumptions and growth in demand and supply projections.
Since 2005, there have been multiple dry years where the agency
was able to provide adequate supplies to all its contractors.
However, a contingency plan was put in place between the agency and
its 14 municipal and other customers, setting “minimum allocations”
of water supplies in case of drought or other emergencies.
The draft plan is available at the water agency’s web site
www.scwa.ca. gov/uwmp.