[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY-4/02/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 2, 2009

 

4. Water Quality

 

Winegrowers, environmentalists unify over wastewater plan

The Sonoma West Times & News – 4/02/09

 

Final EIR will go before County Board on May 12

 

SANTA ROSA — County officials are expected to approve a massive wastewater irrigation project’s environmental impact report next month despite continued opposition from Healdsburg and Russian River Valley wine growers who say the wastewater project will pollute local groundwater supplies.

“The claims that it won’t impact groundwater are completely unsubstantiated” said Healdsburg resident and Clean Water Coalition of Northern Sonoma County spokesman Stu Harrison, regarding the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) released last week by the Sonoma County Water Agency. The FEIR is scheduled to be presented to county supervisors on May 12.

The massive report addresses the Water Agency’s North Sonoma County Agricultural Reuse Project (NSCARP) that would provide municipal wastewater to agricultural users in Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley and the Russian River Valley.

 

The estimated $348 million project includes 17 reservoirs and more than 100 miles of pipeline to provide agricultural users with tertiary-treated wastewater from the city of Santa Rosa, the town of Windsor and the Airport Larkfield Wikiup Sanitation Zone.

Opponents include the Dry Creek Valley Association, the Alexander Valley Association and the Soda Rock Neighborhood Association, who have conducted their own studies that point to major potential impacts.

“The outlook for groundwater is not good,” said Harrison. The FEIR’s arguments “are not born out by our studies.”

Winegrowers two years ago raised other issues including the potential negative public perception of irrigating premium wines with treated wastewater that’s technically not fit to drink. Growers such as Lou Preston of Preston Vineyards and Winery in the Dry Creek Valley said they support the concept of recycled water but worried about the agricultural use of wastewater containing contaminants such as pharmaceuticals.

“It seems like the right thing to do in a world of scarce resources,” said Preston on the Clean Water Coalition of Northern Sonoma County website. But opponents remain united in asking that “any wastewater projects in North County do us no harm,” said Preston.

Supporters of wastewater irrigation, including some of the area’s major grape growers such as Gallo, say it’s in common practice elsewhere without harming groundwater, affecting crops or tarnishing the market for premium wines.

The Dry Creek Agricultural Water Users and the Coalition of Sustainable Agriculture have both expressed interest in irrigating with wastewater, says the FEIR. Together those groups represent about 11,000 acres out of more than 21,000 acres in the proposed irrigation area.

The Water Agency and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation along with agricultural and environmental supporters have proposed the irrigation project as a way to provide a reliable long-term water supply that would reduce the use of ground water and surface water for agricultural uses.

“NSCARP would result in fewer agricultural diversions from the Russian River and its tributaries which would enable the Water Agency to release less water from storage in Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma to meet water demands and instream flow requirements,” said the Water Agency’s notice that the final report is now available.

Public copies can be viewed at the Healdsburg, Windsor, Guerneville and Cloverdale public libraries and as well as online at the Sonoma County Water Agency’s website.

NSCARP, one of the largest public works projects in county history, would be built in phases over 10 or 20 years and eventually could deliver 20,000 acre feet of recycled water annually to growers in the Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River valleys.

The reservoirs include enlarging some existing storage sites such as a Gallo facility on Highway 101 in Asti, as well as constructing two big new ponds, one covering 20 acres and the other 14 acres, which the town of Windsor had planned for wastewater storage near the intersection of Eastside Road and Mark West Station.

The reservoirs would be filled up in winter to provide irrigation water in summer and fall.

Grapegrower opposition based on the issue of negative public perception is not addressed in the new FEIR.

“Environmental impacts do not include issues pertaining to cost, public perception/confidence, taste of wine … etc.,” says the FEIR.

A lot of vineyards are already irrigated with recycled water, including grapes used to make premium champagne and pinot noir in Napa County, which “attest to its feasibility,” says the FEIR.

“In terms of the use of recycled water on vines having a significant effect or alteration on the taste of wine,” says the FEIR, “we have found no significant evidence or date to form a definitive conclusion.”#

 

http://www.sonomawest.com/articles/2009/04/01/sonomawest/news/doc49d3d27c67c47760633085.txt

 

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