Council approves water plan

Two back-to-back and unanimous approvals last week by the Sonoma City Council took different looks at the same ongoing concern.
The first, Sonoma’s 2005 Urban Water Management Plan, is a state-mandated strategy for assessing municipal water supply and demand – a “living document” that may change with local conditions. “It’s just basically a plan for the next 30 years, to be revised every five years,” Milenka Bates, Sonoma’s public works director, said Tuesday.
A public hearing last August raised councilmember concerns regarding the accuracy of demand projections. Also at issue was whether or not a) the city would be left dry should a proposed Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) transmission project fall through, in which case demand could exceed supply by 2010, and b) the city could pump enough groundwater to compensate. According to Bates’ report to the council, the revisions adopted last week “highlight the fact that without a long-range plan – and its effective implementation – the City will be forced to rely on groundwater on a long-term basis to meet projected water needs.”
The council’s second approval also involved the SCWA, this time as regards their funding the city’s 2007/08 Water Conservation Plan. This is the last year of the 10-year funding period, which this year budgets more than $156,000 for educational efforts including the Depot Park Demonstration Garden and such water-saving measures as a residential water audit program and low-flow showerheads and toilets. For more information on the latter, call City Hall at 938-3681.