Russian River Water Forum
Update
1 City Council Meeting
May 23, 2023
Jennifer Burke – Santa Rosa Water Director
Potter Valley
Hydroelectric Project
• ~9.4 MW hydroelectric project owned and
operated by PG&E, In operation for more than
100 years
• On average, 60,000 acre-feet (AF) of water
transferred from Eel River into Upper Russian
River watershed
• PG&E decided not to re-license the project,
going through license surrender and
decommissioning process
• Without transfer of water, 8 out of 10 years not
enough water to meet all the needs of the
upper Russian River
• In 2 of those 8 years, Lake Mendocino
predicted to go dry
3 • Sonoma Water received state grant funding to support water supply resiliency planning and support the creation of the RRWF • RRWF initially focus on four questions related to PVP decommissioning solutions:
• Ownership – Who would acquire, modify, and operate these facilities?
• Water Supply and Fisheries – What PVP facilities would be acquired, how would they be modified, how reliable will the water supply be?
• Financial – How would the acquisition, modification, and operation be funded?
• Water Rights – How will water rights be impacted and managed? Russian River Water Forum (RRWF)
Russian River Water Forum Structure
Public Workshops/Broader Engagement
Planning Group
Russian River
Resiliency
Subcommittee
Steering
Committee
Cities, Counties,
Tribes, Water
Districts
Version: Feb.14, 2023
Leadership
Council
Working Groups
• Governance/Decommission
ing
• Water Supply and Fisheries
• Finance/Economics
• Water Rights
DRAFT
Leadership Council: Elected Officials
• Comprised of Tribal, local, county, state, and federal elected officials or designee
• Leadership Council will consider options and alternatives from the Planning Group
• Share information, build understanding, and strive for consensus
• Provide information and recommendations to
their respective governments and constituents
• WAC Chair, Mike Healy with Petaluma, and WAC Vice Chair, Mayor Rogers, participating
Photo by E Salomone
Planning Group: Technical Staff
• Lake, Humboldt, Mendocino and Sonoma county governments • Tribal governments in Russian River and Eel River basins • Water suppliers
• Sonoma County Water Suppliers – 6 seats
• Environmental NGOs
• Agriculture interests
• Resource Conservation Districts
• Public and private recreation interests
Sonoma County Water Supplier Caucus
• Caucus discussions outside of Planning Group
• 6 Sonoma County water suppliers
• North County (member and alternate)
• West County (member and alternate)
• Sonoma Water (member and alternate)
• Water Contractors (3 members and 3 alternates)
• Working group participation
• Water Supply and Fisheries
• Finance and Economics
• Governance and Decommissioning
• Water Rights
8 Council supported the following:
• Support continued flow of water from the Project into the Russian • Maintain water supply reliability of the Russian River • Support the significant investments made by Sonoma Water and the water contactors in restoration
• Generally support establishment of a Regional Entity to acquire elements of the Project and water rights
• Indicate receptiveness to contributing funding proportional to the benefit received • Ensure any decisions regarding the continued flow of water from the Project are consistent with the Restructured Agreement for Water Supply • Continue to seek opportunities for meaningful input on the Russian River Water Forum and water supply resiliency projects evaluation
Council Policy Direction
Next Steps
• Planning Group
• First meeting: May 17th in Ukiah
• Working Groups: June
• Sonoma County Water Supplier Caucus
• Meeting
• Determining Principles, Objectives, Interests
• Leadership Council
• Establishing
• Tentatively Mid to Late Summer for Meeting
Questions?
10 https://russianriverwaterforum.org/