Water “pow wow” draws room full of experts

In a room at the Sonoma Community Center dominated by a series of long tables arranged in horse-shoe-fashion, a panel of experts, including Sonoma City Council members and staff, members of the Planning Commission, the Community Services and Environment Commission, the Sonoma County Water Agency and other water professionals, faced each other, the public, and the future of Sonoma’s water supply.
Bob Cannard Jr., speaking for his father who was unwell, set the tone at the start of the meeting, saying, “We don’t have a water problem. We have a water management problem.”
Presentations by Sonoma City Planner David Goodison and Sonoma County Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer Jay Jasperse showed similar information in graphic detail where the water is, how it gets here, and why there is concern about the balance of future demand against availability.
Goodison showed that Sonoma’s city water is purchased from the Sonoma County Water Agency and comes from Lake Sonoma, up the Russian River north of Healdsburg. He said the projected peak month demand shows that by 2017, demand will outstrip supply, assuming there is no demand reduction. “The question is,” he said, “how to meet these needs.”
Both presentations reviewed the considerations facing the Sonoma County Water Agency and the cities that depend on it. Pressures on water supply include increased demand, delays in improvement projects such as aqueducts, years of drought, which would reduce supply, considerations around protecting water supply and maintaining the system of groundwater supply. Goodison said there were certain elements on which they would focus: conservation, imported supply, groundwater supply and management, re-use, and demand limitations.
As for demand limitations, Goodison noted that Sonoma’s Growth Management Ordinance had been steadily reduced since 1980, to 65 units per year in 2007. But future demand projections assume 80-90 units per year. The problem is that there will likely be more demand and less water in the future.
The city’s current conservation programs include water audits and leak detection, cash for grass initiatives, low water use landscapes, rebates for water efficient appliances and others. Goodison said the Sonoma County Water Agency is talking about increasing its diversions from Lake Sonoma to the city, via a new aqueduct, yet the project is big and expensive and would involve complicated permits and environmental regulations. That expectation, he said, may have to be scaled back. Meanwhile, according to Goodison, the Basin Advisory Panel is studying areas for recharging basins. He said a key partner is the VOM Water District and that they’re already working together on groundwater projects. As Jay Jasperse said, “It’s a balancing act.”
Follow-up meetings will be announced in the future to allow feedback from the public and to review strategies.