Basin Advisory Panel honored

On April 24, Supervisor Valerie Brown, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Water Agency, honored the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Management Plan Basin Advisory Panel. “The ‘gold resolution’,” said Brown, “is one of the ways we have of recognizing a service to the county that we think is extraordinary.”
The Basin Advisory Panel is a collaborative group of twenty representatives from local agriculture, dairy, government, business, and environmental interests who have worked together since 2006 to develop a non-regulatory Groundwater Management Plan for Sonoma Valley. The group, said Brown, has been extraordinary from the start. “When we were looking to do groundwater management in the Sonoma Valley, we asked ourselves, ’How do we put together a group that represents areas of water-use but who may not necessarily agree?’ So we wanted to get farmers, environmentalists, people who were involved with the water agency, elected officials, people with involvement in the city, people dependent on well water.” They warned those they interviewed of the length of time such a project would take, and then the panel of the willing put fears and self-interest aside – and began the 18-month process working toward the common goal of a sustainable water supply.
“The membership of that group,” said Sonoma City Planner David Goodison, “involved a lot of volunteers spending an incredible amount of time devoted to something which will be incredibly important to Sonoma’s future – the groundwater supply. That’s a huge accomplishment.”
Now, their plan is in place. “There is a solid plan and all the major constituencies are on board with that. Ag users, smaller water providers, they’re all on board with it.” For the plan to succeed, all will need to remain committed. “The plan is only going to be effective if we all work to make it happen.”
Currently, the plan – which was adopted by the Sonoma County Water Agency, the City of Sonoma and the Valley of the Moon Water District in late 2007 – is under way, and a ground-water monitoring system is being set up to provide information on the state of the groundwater in various places throughout the valley. According to project manager Bill Keene, they are working on three fronts. First, is the groundwater level monitoring program. Second, is a voluntary water conservation program in the unincorporated areas not served b y Valley of Moon and City of Sonoma. Third, they are still waiting on a response to their grant application to the State Department of Water Resources Agency to do recharge mapping and put in two new monitoring wells.
When that grant is approved, they’ll be working on creating a feasibility study for a ground water recharge program which might involve passively diverting water, such as out of the Sonoma Creek, and allowing it to passively recharge into the aquifer. Another idea is to develop a groundwater recharge program using excess winter flow from the Russian River and having some sort of injection – or passively recharging system. Both of these would take feasibility studies and permits. These are the ways the Groundwater Management Plan identified to increase the storage of the aquifer. You’ve got to do conservation, recycling and balancing the existing the ground water use with surface water from the Russian River,” said Keene.
Members of the Basin Advisory Panel include: Chair Mark Bramfitt, Sonoma Valley Citizen’s Advisory Commission and Valley of the Moon Water District and Chair of the Basin Advisory Panel; Matt Atkinson, Benziger Family Winery; Al Bandur, City of Sonoma; Caitlin Cornwall, Sonoma Ecology Center; Katherine Culligan, West Valley Alliance; Nicki DiMattei, Focus4; David Goodison, Sonoma Planning and Community Development Administrator; Clarence Jenkins; Ned Hill, Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance; Vicki Hill; Jay Jasperse, Sonoma County Water Agency; Krishna Kumar, Valley of the Moon Water District; John Macleod, Indian Springs Ranch; Vickie Mulas, Mulas Dairy; Ed Nelson; Pete Parkinson, Sonoma County PRMD; Kathy Pons, Valley of the Moon Alliance; Leandra Swent, Southern Sonoma RCD ; Maggie Salenger; and Tito Sasaki.