Conservation, information head listfor water management

“It’s urgent,” said Jay Jasperse, Deputy Chief Engineer, Sonoma County Water Agency. “I would say, it’s essential. It’s got to be a way of life, part of our business practices.”
“I don’t feel satisfied we’ll be able to meet the need,” said Sonoma City Councilmember Joanne Sanders, who organized the special Water Study Session last week in which the Sonoma City Council, the Planning Commission and the Community Services and Environment Commission joined together to review the present and future water picture. Featured presentations by Jasperse and Sonoma City Planner David Goodison showed what it takes to bring water from the northern reaches of the Russian River to a Sonoma resident’s tap.
The presentations, detailed and comprehensive, did not conflict with Sanders’ personal observation that there’s less water now, and more demand for it. “Looking at the reality out there,” said Sanders, “there’s increasing population and a dwindling supply of water. We haven’t really made any inroads in technology developed to capture and sustain water to maintain the growth.”
Pressing on the water agency is a recent superior court ruling that its 2005 Urban Water Management Plan is inadequate. Jasperse said the county would appeal. “There were 18 points [in the complaint] and the judge found four of the 18 had merit. We disagreed with those findings.” He said the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors had decided to appeal the ruling. Meanwhile, that plan is still in effect. “It was approved by the state,” he said, “and in a year and a half, we’ll be going with a new plan.”
That is the Urban Water Management Plan for 2010, but Jasperse does not say the plan holds any certitude for water delivery or availability. “There’s not certainty anywhere, in water or pretty much anything, when you look that far in the future,” he said. “We have a multi-faceted program. And so does Sonoma. And that’s the way you have to plan: diversify your water portfolio. And we have to look at the financials and see whether they can put all those pipelines in – or look at other solutions. And Sonoma has to do that, too.”
He said Sonoma County is on the leading edge with the Groundwater Management Plan and that he has been giving talks on that process around the state and as far as Tennessee. He said the agency had received a $250,000 state grant and were rated second in the state out of 120 applicants. Jasperse said one of the main reasons why they were rated so high was the groundwater management plan. “I think Sonoma’s ahead in our region,” he said. “And I think that’s going to be a key. If people can work together on this from different interest perspectives and find common ground, I think the chance of success is good.”
Sanders said she was pleased with the meeting. “I thought they did a fantastic job. For the short term, I think the elected officials we have now are going to be pretty open – they’ll be listeners. I see the way the train is headed. It seems to me Sonoma’s going to be relying almost entirely on its groundwater.”