P.O. Box 184 Forestville, CA 95436 Email: Home Calendar Board & Committees About FPA Volunteer Issues & Updates Action Alerts Contact Us Site Designed by Janet Zagoria

Alert – Steve Fogle, No-Low-Flow Committee FPA alerts are to keep you informed of opportunities for input into the future of Forestville. PLEASE ACT NOW! July 2004 The Sonoma County Water Agency Are Looking to Start Low-Flow Within Weeks Please contact immediately: Victoria Whitney Division of Water Rights State Water Resources Control Board 1001 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 341-5300 A call is better than a letter. Below is a Save the Russian River - No Low-Flow Committee News Release. Please Read & Act Now. SCWA SEEKS IMMEDIATE CUT IN RUSSIAN RIVER FLOW The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) has filed a petition for “Temporary Urgent Change” with the California Division of Water Rights, asking to reduce the flow in the Russian River immediately. Filed on June 28 and signed by SCWA General Manager Randy Poole, the petition asks that water year 2004 be classified a “dry year” under “Decision 1610”, the existing law governing river flow. Urgency petitions can be granted by the state as quickly as 10 days from the date of filing. A letter by Poole accompanying the petition claims that current conditions are similar to those of 2002 when levels of Lake Mendocino became “dangerously low” and caused “serious risks to water supplies and listed Russian River salmonids fishery resources, particularly adult Chinook salmon, and severely impaired recreation on Lake Mendocino. The petition also had letters from the federal National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Game attached to it. The two letters, which use almost identical language and seem written by the same person, support the idea of immediate flow reduction because it will ostensibly protect endangered fish. Both letters include the language, “Even though 2004 is a normal yearunder the Decision 1610 criteria, we believe that the Agency’s proposal to operate to the dry-year requirements during the remainder of 2004 is appropriate… ” In other words 2004 is not a “dry year” under existing law, a prerequisite for lowering river flow, but the letter-writers are urging the State Division of Water Right to reduce flow anyway. In our view this petition is seriously flawed in many respects: It asks the Division of Water Rights to go against the plain language of Decision 1610. It ignores the recent county-funded study by Prunuske Chatham concluding that flow reduction will not only kill endangered fish, it will pose significant health risks for people on the lower river by depleting ground-water supplies and inviting disease-carrying mosquitoes. The SCWA faces problems supplying water to urban customers this summer, but has not begun conservation programs. The SCWA apparently considers irrigation of urban decorative landscaping, a major summer use of SCWA water, more important than the health and welfare of the residents of the lower river and the survival of endangered fish species. It places the importance of Lake Mendocino recreation above the health and welfare of lower river residents. Steven Fogle, Executive Director Russian River Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Centers P.O. Box 331 16209 First Street Guerneville, CA 95446 707-869-9000 steve@russianriver.com Back to Top Back to Action Alerts Page