Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
February 22, 2022
The Honorable Mike Thompson
U.S. House of Representatives
286 Cannon Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
RE: WRDA Reauthorization of 2022
Dear Congressman Thompson:
On behalf of the City of Santa Rosa, I am writing to respectfully request your support for Santa Rosa Water’s Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) Environmental Infrastructure request to address our aging wastewater infrastructure.
Santa Rosa Water delivers approximately six billion gallons of drinking water, each year, to over 53,000 customer accounts, and maintains the sanitary sewer system for over 49,000 customer accounts in Santa Rosa, serving a population of over 173,000. These systems in clude roughly 1,200 miles of water and sewer pipelines.
Santa Rosa Water also operates the Santa Rosa Regional Water Reuse System, which serves approximately 230,000 residents in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Sebastopol, and unincorporated portions of Sonoma County. The hub of the reuse system is the Laguna Wastewater Treatment Plant. On average, during dry weather, the treatment plant receives 14 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater from the region and has seen flows peak at over 90 MGD during large storms.
Nearly 100% of our tertiary recycled wate r during dry to normal years is beneficially reused.
Approximately two billion gallons of recycled water is used for agriculture and urban irrigation and over four billion gallons is sent to the Geysers steamfields via a 41-mile pipeline to recharge the steamfields, which produce approximately 100 megawatts of clean and renewable energy, or enough power for 100,000 households in Sonoma and other North Bay counties.
Earlier this year, Assistant Secretary of the Army Michael Connor testified before multiple Congressional hearings and noted the importance of WRDA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s role in strengthening water resources and water infrastructure. We support the reauthorization of WRDA, and we are aligned with the Army Corps’ mission to protec t our environment and water resources and address the growing realities of climate change. Last year,
Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
the Congressional Research Service underscored the vital role WRDA and the Army Corps have in supporting local communities with critical water infrastructure projects.
Santa Rosa Water is seeking a new Environmental Infrastructure authorization to help fund improvements to its deficient wastewater conveyance and treatment facilities. Several of the City’s large -diameter trunk sewers require urgent rehabilitation to avoid catastrophic failure, which could potentially interrupt the Regional Water Reuse System, and have sweeping negative environmental, social, political, and economic impacts to our region.
The identified trunk sewers, Llano Trunk and Robles Trunk, represent some of the City’s most critical wastewater infrastructure as the trunk lines transport significant flow to the treatment plant via large diameter pipelines located in environmentally critical areas that are identified as habitat fo r endangered plant and animal species. These lines are also located under paved roadways, along access sewer easements, and adjacent to other infrastructure that is in the lower income residential and agricultural areas of our community. With the predicted prevalence of less frequent, but more intense storms, there is significant concern that the added flows during these events can add stress to our already decaying infrastructure and lead to a costly and environmentally damaging failure.
Because of the significant length of aging pipe and the high consequence of catastrophic failure that poses a threat to human and environmental health and safety, a private engineering consultant has recommended the City prioritize the rehabilitation of these assets over next several years.
The monetary benefits of the project - providing affordable and essential sewer service for the health and safety of Santa Rosa’s residents, businesses, industry, and agriculture— are critical to strengthening the local economy, and supporting new housing, retail businesses, recreation, and tourism.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for your prompt attention to our request.
Sincerely,
Chris Rogers, Mayor