SDC’s Movable Fence, Moving Water

EIR Research and Failing Infrastructure

By David Bolling

Public attention has been drawn to the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) over the past two weeks, first by the mysterious appearance of elaborate chain link fencing, covered by opaque fabric, surrounding large blocks of the 180-acre campus, followed by a substantial water leak that began on the evening of September 24 and lasted until mid-morning of the following day.

The fencing, according to First District Supervisor Rebecca Hermosillo, is part of the research being conducted prior to completion of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the County’s second attempt to create a Specific Plan governing the ultimate development of the SDC campus.

The fencing, Hermosillo reports, is designed to temporarily keep the public out of areas where boring tests are being conducted for the subsurface analysis needed to complete the EIR required to satisfy the demands of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Because the SDC campus has a virtual honeycomb of water pipelines, electrical conduits, gas lines, tunnels, sewage pipes and other subsurface infrastructure, along with various forms of toxic substance contamination, mapping the subsurface maze is necessary before any excavation can take place.

The EIR boring process does not necessarily require physical ground penetration, but can be significantly mapped by ground-penetrating radar in concert with historical geological maps, aerial photos and water well records.

According to information released by Scott Orr, Director of the County’s planning department, Permit Sonoma, “The fencing is not intended to deter general public access. It is a temporary safety measure designed to keep people away from active work areas while the additional environmental investigation is underway. The fencing will be temporary and removed when no longer needed, and thus is not expected to create a barrier to wildlife movement or prohibit the public’s access to the adjacent open space.”

Cost of the fencing has not been made public, but Orr reported that, “To date the costs of the project have been covered by the County’s contract with DGS (California Department of General Services) and the project developer.”

In fact, whole sections of the fencing have already been moved from one section of the property to another, and at one point fenced off about half of the playing field on Arnold Drive.

The work is being conducted by a subcontractor hired by Dyett & Bhatia, the Oakland consulting firm contracted by the County to conduct the EIR and whatever geotechnical engineering reporting is needed. Dyett & Bhatia also prepared the original SDC EIR that was subsequently rejected by a Sonoma County Superior Court judge as being wholly inadequate.

The state and county-approved contractor is expected to propose building close to 1,000 homes on the property, after razing an estimated 90 percent of existing buildings. A completed draft EIR was originally scheduled to be available by Spring of this year, but has now been delayed until the Spring of 2027.

Meanwhile, a substantial water leak was found rising out of the site of a former swimming pool on the SDC campus, a block north  of Hahman Drive on Thursday evening, September 24. A Valley of the Moon Water District employee on site around 9:30 p.m. that night said he had no idea what caused the leak, but said there was a maze of water pipes underlying the former campus site, which once housed upwards of 3,000 developmentally disabled residents.

It is known that some of the facility’s fire hydrants are no longer operative because of leaks in the main pipes feeding the fire prevention system. Maintenance of the campus facilities was substantially halted in June of 2024, at a point in time when the State Department of General Services (DGS) – owners of the property – exhausted the legislatively-approved budget for what was called a “warm shutdown.”

The leak ran steadily from that Thursday evening until midmorning of the next day, filling gutters on its way downhill to a curbside drain funneling into Sonoma Creek. The volume was difficult to estimate but an educated guess by this reporter (who has studied creek flows for years) would be something close to a gallon a second, or roughly a cubic foot per minute which, measured over some 14 hours would equal something over 50,000 gallons.

When asked if the cause of the leak had been identified, a spokesman for the Valley of the Moon Water District regretfully explained that the District’s contract with DGS to provide help maintaining the SDC water system prohibits sharing information with the public. By press time, efforts to reach a DGS source for further clarification were unsuccessful.