Sonoma County Gazette March 2017

MARCH 2017
LOTS on your CONFUSED about
Dental Health Robert’s Relics is KNOW your RIGHTS
Minds!...Letters & Opinion ~ 3-11
your Electricity & Gas Bill? ~ 15
impacts Heart Health? ~ 27
Leaving after 46 Years ~ 31
no matter WHO your are! ~ 33
Our Water Future at Risk
“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years,
and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden.
Will we reduce our water use permanently or be unprepared
for the next drought?
Water Agency’s (SCWA) Russian River water stored in reservoirs. Our lives and livelihood are dependent upon this most valuable natural resource. As we grow into the future, we need to be aware that we have a problem. Our water source, limited by our water rights, has been overcommitted by 16% by the Water agency signing long- term agreements with its main water contractors.
What IS What Could Be
By Bill Wadsworth
Most of us drink the Sonoma County
Simply put, it is a gathering of people in our watershed to explore “what is” and “what could be” on the Russian River. As we wrote in the January Sonoma Gazette, our watershed has some profound problems that make our community and wildlife more vulnerable to extreme weather we expect due to a shifting climate. We are more vulnerable to floods and droughts because our past actions have resulted in a river that is 80% smaller than 100 years ago. This has cost our community the free natural services the river used to provide, known as ecosystem services, such as flood control, pollutant filtration, groundwater recharge and wildlife and salmon habitat.
WHAT IS cont’d on page 12
Since SCWA is currently delivering just over half of its water now1, this overcommitted water isn’t a present concern for SCWA, but it should be for us. Here’s why.
The disconnection of our river from its floodplains and development of former wetlands for agriculture and development leaves less room for floods and no off-ramps for pollution once in the river. When our river floods and spreads out – like it has this year – we increase groundwater recharge that protects us from prolonged droughts when out lakes will be too low or empty.
SCWA’s overcommitted water is providing the basis for current development. But SCWA fails to have sufficient water rights to provide water for these projects after 2035.2 There is a high risk that neither water resources nor water rights will increase sufficiently to cover this shortage.
By Don McEnhill
You might have caught wind of an
upcoming event; the Russian River Confluence March 24th at SRJC’s Shone Farm and wonder what is this all about?
WATER cont’d on page 14
The EVERYTHING to DO Calendar: pgs 52 - 71
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