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Article – Russian River Flow |
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SCWA Seeks To Cut Russian River Flow Starting 2005
by Steve Fogle, Chairperson, Save the Russian River – No Low-Flow Committee The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) has asked the California Division of Water Rights for permission to reduce flow in the Russian River starting in May 2005 in order to conduct a “pilot study.” The proposal was announced in a May 28, 2004 letter to the state agency from SCWA General Manager Randy Pool. The SCWA proposes a substantially reduced Russian River flow May through October, 2005. The SCWA has retained a consulting firm that contends in a report that, because summertime flow was lower 100 years ago when fish flourished, reducing the flow will replicate the ancient fish habitat. The report has been criticized because the SCWA consultants were unable to cite instances where lowering a river’s flow has helped fish. Critics have pointed to other rivers such as the Klamath where the effects of a lowered flow were clearly detrimental, resulting in the deaths of many thousands of fish. Consultants for the Guerneville-based Russian River No Low-Flow Committee as well as those retained by the Friends of the Russian River contend that reducing the flow will in fact cause environmental harm, especially to fish. Because of gravel mining, urban runoff and agricultural runoffs, the deep pools that sheltered fish during summertime a century ago no longer exist, and the much shallower pools that will remain after flow reduction will have temperatures much too high, causing fish to die in large numbers. Moreover the pollutants and “nutrients” that currently enter the river upstream will become more concentrated, resulting in very poor fish habitat. Those nutrients originate from the sewage treatment plant in Santa Rosa. They have caused an innocuous-looking plant called water primrose to flourish in the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Often referred to by its scientific name Ludwigia hexapetala, the primrose is now a thick mat of foliage that has choked out all other plants in the Laguna, while it sucks up oxygen needed by living creatures. It has proven impossible to remove the Ludwigia mechanically, manually or with poisons, and it provides an impenetrable habitat for mosquito breeding. Ludwigia has become, some say, an ecological disaster in the Laguna. It is the view of The Friends of the Russian River “Riverkeeper” Don McEnhill that a reduced Russian River flow in the summertime will cause Ludwigia to spread from the Laguna to the entire lower river. The nutrients released from the sewage treatment plant in the winter remain in the river sand in the summer. Shallow, stagnant pools and the adjacent banks on both sides of the river will quickly become choked with Ludwigia, precluding swimming or boating. Worse, insecticides are unable to penetrate the thick Ludwigia blanket, and mosquito larvae would flourish unabated, providing potential for a major public health hazard. Critics maintain the Water Agency’s need for a “pilot study” experiment demonstrates that the SCWA has little if any scientifically acceptable evidence supporting its conclusion that a reduction in Russian River water flow will benefit endangered fish. Riverkeeper Don McEnhill states that conducting a live experiment on the entire length of the lower Russian River would be an inordinately poor way to attempt to prove an unsubstantiated hypothesis. Prepared June 16, 2004 Please address your comments to:Back to Top Back to Issues & Updates Page |