Rancho de Sonoma: many questions, few answers

A number of Rancho de Sonoma residents met on Tuesday to discuss their water problems – arsenic levels higher than currently permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – with Sonoma City Council member Steve Barbose.
Before the meeting, various residents described their water problems, which some blamed on arsenic levels, as ranging from smelly, sometimes brown, to okay for coffee. Resident John Carrillo said the arsenic levels were twice what they used to be. Judieann Desilets said she no longer suffers flu-like symptoms now that she’s not drinking the water.
When the EPA notice came out in late July, mobile home park owner Preston Cook said that the levels themselves have not changed, but the EPA’s requirements have become twice as strict. Cook has said he is working with the EPA and will comply with their requirements. One of the options available to him, said park resident Earl Ahern, who chaired the meeting Tuesday night, was to purchase water from the City of Sonoma. Some residents, having heard about a recent judgment against the Sonoma County Water Agency, wondered whether the City of Sonoma would actually be able to provide the water.
Barbose began his presentation assuring the group that he was not speaking for the city, nor had he yet been able to analyze the brief of the lawsuit in which a superior court judge ruled against the Sonoma County Water Agency’s water plan. This is the plan on which the City of Sonoma’s is based – thus the concern.
Barbose, while unable to offer solutions, gave a clear explanation of how Sonoma gets its water. “Sonoma is a customer of the Sonoma County Water Agency, as are nine other districts, including the Valley of the Moon Water District,” he said. “So everybody that is on public water in this valley, in the city or outside the city is drinking Sonoma County Water Agency water.” He explained how there is indeed a reservoir of water, but the problem getting it to Sonoma is delivery. There are ideas, he said, but no plans about how to get an improved delivery system to Sonoma. As for the arsenic, he said the city manager has asked the EPA whether the city should be doing something to remedy the situation, but the EPA said no, that they were handling it.