Page 40 - Sonoma County Gazette - August 2017

The dog days. That’s where we are. Get your dog and spend the day at the beach. That’s my kind of dog day. This month’s column is chock full of Camp Meekery goodness.
Thanks to the hard work of Board member Tony Tominia, Camp Meeker will receive funding to completely remove all invasive species from the beach parcel. That would be primarily English Ivy and Blackberry bushes, which any Camp Meeker resident could guess in three guesses and the first two don’t count. This removal will take place over several years. Again, as any Camp Meeker resident could tell you, removing those two plants from a piece of property is a case of nineteen steps forward, eighteen steps back. Ivy and blackberry are worthy adversaries.
Second bit of news: We have an election for member of the Park and Rec Board on November 7 this year. It’s a little bit like the Senate, where only some of the members are up for election in any given year. This year, board members Gary Helfrich, Anthony Tominia, and Val Larson are up for election. I’m sure we will visit that subject in future columns as the election gets closer.
Advocates
Remember last month when I talked in vague and general terms about the boil-water incident? I’ve got the skinny. Jamie Dunton of Russian River Utility gave me a very good tutorial on the layout of the Camp Meeker water system.
Background: While Sonoma County is considered by some to be one of the best places to live in the world, many Lower Russian River residents don’t share the same opportunities to reach their full potential. The poverty and child poverty rates in the Guerneville/Rio Nido and Monte Rio census tracts are higher than in 80% of the rest of the tracts in Sonoma County and residents in the Guerneville/Rio Nido, Forestville, and Monte Rio tracts are expected to live shorter lives than those living in 60% of the census tracts in Sonoma County.
A quick thumbnail: Camp Meeker pulls water from two wells we own in Monte Rio (which fill with water from the Russian River aquifer). From there
it is pumped uphill through an underground water main along Bohemian Highway to a booster pump on the Alliance Redwoods property. From there it is pumped uphill to the water tanks on Tower Road, Mizpah Street, and Morelli Lane. It is also pumped further uphill to the booster pump at the Union Grove, just outside Occidental. From there it fills up Occidental’s 250,000-gallon storage tank. (The Camp Meeker tanks are about 100,000 each).
No government agency, organization or program can solve these and
other interconnected complex social issues on its own. Lower Russian River communities are isolated from each other, and the organizations serving them often work in isolation as well. As an unincorporated region, the Russian River area has no formal representatives, other than the District Supervisor, to make and implement plans for the Lower Russian River area’s education, housing, health, transportation needs, and other important needs.
So what broke? Well, the booster pump in Alliance Redwoods sits on a concrete slab, and under that slab is a length of PVC pipe. The water in that
pipe is at a fairly high pressure – 150 pounds per square inch (psi), or about
ten times atmospheric pressure – and this pressure eventually caused a weak point to fail in the PVC, leading to a split in the pipe, and water coming out of the pipe at 150 psi into the surrounding earth. Also coming out of the pipe was the energy (in the form of water pressure) necessary to get uphill to the Camp Meeker storage tanks. This was also the source of the boil-water notices, because the rules say that when a pipe loses pressure through a leak it becomes possible for contaminants (in this case, dirt) to get into the pipe. It’s still pretty unlikely because the earth doesn’t generally push in on the pipe as hard as the water is pushing out.
RRARA and how it improves the health of Russian River area
Some Camp Meeker residents lost some or all of their water pressure as
a result, but the problem was of short duration thanks to quick thinking by Russian River Utility (RRU) and that quarter million gallons sitting uphill of us in Occidental. RRU turned some valves and the water came back downhill, bypassing the Union Grove booster pump through, wait for it, a bypass pipe, and our tanks were full again.
El Molino High School are enhancing the connections that students have to the school, adults, and their communities and vice versa. Research has found these connections to be important determinants of academic achievement and well- being for adolescents.
After everything was repaired and clean, pure drinking water was once again flowing out of our taps, RRU made some recommendations to prevent future occurrences. These recommendations involve moving the pipe in question above ground (for easier access) and replacing the PVC with ductile iron (for durability). This comes with a price tag and some other issues, it’s not a done deal yet. There will be discussion.
Priority Issues: Through needs assessment and planning processes RRARA members identi ed educational attainment, opioid addiction, housing, and transportation as priority issues to address.
Educational Attainment: RRARA’s education working group made up
of local education stakeholders identi ed early childhood education as a key point to intervene based on its relation to educational attainment and signi cant local gaps in early education. The working group developed a Russian River Early Childhood Education Vision and Action Plan in 2016 that resulted in
the recent reopening of Fort Ross and Montgomery (Cazadero) Preschools after being closed for recent years, funding and distribution of 90 United Way School Readiness Backpacks for low-income families with children, coordination of a lm screening and panel discussion to promote local awareness and support for early childhood education, and increased participation in two evidence-based parenting programs (Triple P - Positive Parenting Program and Nurse Family Partnership), as well as increasing local involvement in local and statewide advocacy opportunities. “In the case of the small West County school districts, RRARA’s coordination of various e orts resulted in the reinstatement of preschools which had closed due to lack of funding.
I admit I’m a bit of a nerd about this stuff. As a Mechanical Engineer myself,
I can appreciate buffer tanks and booster pumps and PVC and psi. I also have to hand it to the Civil Engineers. They have to deal with dirt and water and concrete and asphalt. All of which are a little more unpredictable than stainless steel. And did I mention how clean our water is? It’s all about the water, and our water is good. It is very good.
40 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 8/17
RRARA cont’d on page 41
Russian
River Area
Resources &
By Jacob Rich
Our vision at RRARA is that every
resident in the Lower Russian River
Area has the opportunity to live
in a safe, healthy, and a ordable
community that supports them to
live up to their potential. RRARA
brings community members and service providers together to develop common agendas and action plans that align resources to help all community members have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in life.
RRARA Coordinator Funding: With the recent detachment of the Russian River area from the Palm Drive Health Care District, RRARA currently
seeks ongoing funding for the RRARA Coordinator to be able to continue our important work.
residents: Collective Impact Approach: RRARA members represent non- pro ts, government, business, and civic groups, as well as private individuals who come together to develop common agendas to address key local issues and support residents to live healthier, more productive lives. RRARA is one of seven Health Action Chapters in Sonoma County leading place-based e orts to make Sonoma County a healthy place for all residents to live, work and play. Leveraging Resources: RRARA leverages resources by splitting RRARA’s Outreach Coordinator position with the West Sonoma County High School District to meet overlapping goals. The Outreach Coordinator’s activities for