Water

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Untreated wastewater spill reported in lower Russian River, people urged to ‘stay away’

Anna Armstrong, PRESS DEMOCRAT

People are being asked to stay away from the lower Russian River after an unknown volume of untreated wastewater spilled from a sewage treatment plant in Guerneville during the tail-end of a storm that drenched Sonoma County and flooded many roads across the region.

Heavy overnight rainfall — part of the region’s prolonged atmospheric river — caused storage ponds at the facility to overflow early Tuesday morning, said Stuart Tiffen, a spokesman for Sonoma Water, which operates the Russian River Treatment Plant.

Affected residents were alerted of the spill Tuesday morning, officials said.

Tiffen described the spill as an “ongoing situation” and said it is currently unknown how many residents are impacted or how much wastewater, including raw sewage, is spilling into the river.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/01/06/untreated-wastewater-spill-reported-in-lower-russian-river-residents-urged-to-stay-away/

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King tides and winter runoff push Petaluma River to highest recorded level in decades

Don Frances, BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

An extraordinarily strong bout of seasonal king tides and runoff from the latest rainstorm combined Friday to push the crest of the Petaluma River to the highest point in nearly the last three decades even as bay tides unleashed flooding in Marin County and other parts of the Bay Area before a weekend of rain and high winds.

The Petaluma River, one of Sonoma County’s largest tidal sloughs, had not topped its banks, but water levels surged to 8.33 feet by 1 p.m. Friday, according to a National Weather Service gauge at the D Street Bridge, where the previous recorded high was 6.4 feet in 1998.

The new record was likely to be broken again by late morning Saturday as the king tides were expected to peak amid the incoming rainstorm, said National Weather Service meteorologist Rachel Kennedy.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/01/02/king-tides-and-winter-runoff-push-petaluma-river-to-highest-recorded-level-in-decades/

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Op-Ed: If feds want Potter Valley dams, they should buy them

PRESS DEMOCRAT EDITORIAL

President Donald Trump’s California derangement syndrome is back as his administration tries to prevent PG&E from removing aging dams in the Potter Valley Project.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has moved to intervene in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission process to determine whether PG&E may tear down two dams and a mothballed powerhouse. Rollins wants FERC to deny the application.

Agriculture secretaries often get involved in these sorts of proceedings. Major changes to watersheds can impact farmers, after all. What is unusual in this case is that in supporting irrigators, a supposedly pro-business administration undermines private enterprise.

PG&E wants to surrender its license for the hydropower system on the Eel River because it now costs more than it is worth. The dams and powerhouse are more than a century old and are nowhere close to meeting modern standards. They require costly repairs and upgrades to remain safe. PG&E absorbs those costs, and no doubt passes some onto ratepayers.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/28/pd-editorial-if-feds-want-potter-valley-dams-they-should-buy-them/

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Trump administration intervenes in dispute over future of Potter Valley Project

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

See also the article by the Lost Coast Outpost

Opponents of a plan to remove two Pacific Gas & Electric-owned dams from the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties have officially won a huge ally: the Trump administration.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Friday filed a notice to intervene in the utility giant’s bid to decommission its waterworks in the rural area, which also include a century-old power plant that helps to shunt Eel River water into irrigation canals that support Mendocino County’s Potter Valley and dump into the upper Russian River, boosting supplies for farms and hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers in the North Bay.

PG&E’s application to decommission the so-called Potter Valley Project is being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which oversees licensing of the nation’s hydroelectric facilities.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/20/trump-administration-intervenes-in-dispute-over-future-of-pges-potter-valley-project/

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Developer of Cloverdale resort project seeks to assure city, public of adequate water supply

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

One question has been dogging the backers of a proposed housing and resort project vying to transform Cloverdale’s long-stalled Alexander Valley Resort site and remake the look of Sonoma County’s northernmost city.

Will there be enough water?

Representatives for Esmeralda Land Company insist there is, citing reports from a consultant the Bay Area developer hired for their ambitious project, which calls for 605 homes — in a mix of apartments, town homes and single family homes — two hotels and two restaurants on 266 acres off Asti Road.

Devon Zuegel, the principal of Esmeralda will be on hand Wednesday at the Cloverdale City Council meeting to field questions focused on water demands tied to the project, which also includes a racquet club, two indoor pavilions, an outdoor amphitheater, retail space, light industrial facilities, a K-6 private school and a standalone office building.

It would also have more than 1.8 million square feet of landscaped area, including a dog park, community garden and playground. The project is conceptualized to be a walkable, bikeable community for multiple generations, according to Zuegel.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/09/esmeraldacloverdalewaterstudy/

 

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Coho salmon found in Sonoma Coast creek for first time in 60 years

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The excitement started with a flash of silver followed by a hefty dose of disbelief.

A team of conservationists and biologists from The Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the 5,600-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve on the Sonoma Coast, couldn’t believe what they were seeing: the telltale color and shape of juvenile coho salmon, darting back and forth in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch.

It had been decades since the endangered fish had made its way to that arm of the watershed.

And yet there they were, as Ryan Berger, Corby Hines and Luke Farmer of The Wildlands Conservancy looked on.

“I had never heard of coho being in the Russian Gulch in recent memory,” said Hines, a ranger with the group.

Coho salmon once thrived in the coastal watersheds of Sonoma County and the broader North Coast, where winter rain, summer fog and the protective canopy of towering redwood forest sustained young fish and spawning adults over millenia.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/08/coho-salmon-found-in-sonoma-coast-creek-for-first-time-in-60-years/

Habitats, Water, Wildlife, , ,

Green Valley revival reconnects creek to floodplain

Dewey Watson, SONOMA COUNTY GAZETTE

A partnership between Iron Horse Vineyards, the property owner, and the Gold Ridge Research Conservation District (Gold Ridge), with funding from California Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center (NOAA), has restored and improved a large part of the middle reach of Green Valley Creek to provide overwintering habitat for coho and steelhead salmon. Construction on the project, which took years of planning, began in April and has recently been completed.

“Now it is up to nature, assisted by teams of workers planting native grasses and willows to restore what has been lost for over a century and bring back healthy salmon to the creek and the Russian River,” said chief scientist and project manager John Green.

Green Valley Creek was once considered critical habitat for salmon because of its proximity to the Atascadero Plain, offering one of the largest basins for young salmon to grow strong enough to survive ocean challenges and return to breed.

This area of the creek, at the bottom of the Iron Horse vineyard property, was once a flat field, prone to annual flooding and quick drainage. It offered no shelter for fish or the insects that support them. Now, after years of planning and months of construction reshaping, the site hums with quiet anticipation as a stream begins to come back to life.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/20/sgz-l-greenvalley-120125/

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