Local HEROES Clean Water

WATER cont’d from page 1These proposed changes include apossible permanent lowering of flows,closing the river mouth at Jenner insummer (even though it would have adire effect on harbor seals, an animalprotected under the Marine MammalAct, and also under the oversight ofNMFS), and making significant habitatalterations to Dry Creek (or requiringthe construction of a very expensivepipeline to get the water from LakeSonoma down to the Russian River).Everything is ConnectedEverything in our environmenti s i nt ercon nec t e d a nd a l l t heenvironmental problems we haveignored in the past are coming to hauntus now. We can’t divorce ourselvesfrom them by denying they exist. Weare in the midst of a major economicdownturn, which is limiting our abilityto access the funds needed to addressthe problem. For example, as a resultof our failing State budget, all our localhabitat restoration groups had mostof their funding stopped while onlypartway through their projects.The Water Agency is being asked byNMFS to make very expensive changesto their water supply system in orderto protect the endangered fish. Somepeople may say “to heck with the fish”,but it is important to realize that thefish are the “canary in the mine”, whoseloss emblemizes great damage to theecosystem, which affects us all. Humanbeings derive great health benefitsfrom the fish we eat, fisherman andrestaurants and grocery stores deriveeconomic benefit from the fishingindustry, and there are many otherimportant reasons to save these species.At a recent meeting, water contractorsrepresenting City water users recoiledat the prospect of as much as a 30%increase in water rates needed toaddress this problem. Where will theyget this money at a time when localeconomies are starting to feel the bruntof fiscal cutbacks? We have now arrivedat the point between the rock and thehard place. This coming year will seea great deal of conflict over this issue.Wateris our Gold StandardAnd there is another major concern.In order to protect our graduallydiminishing clean water supplieswe need to show more care andappreciation for the supplies we’vegot. We need to think of our wateras gold and treat it accordingly. It isabsolutely essential that we addressthe burgeoning pollution issue becausethere are 80,000 chemicals on themarket that are turned into a chemicalsoup by every sewage treatment plant,including all the prescribed and overthe counter drugs we ingest and all thepersonal care and cleaning productswe use. We really don’t know how allof that is affecting aquatic life and ourdrinking water supply. If our cleanwater supplies get polluted, what willwe drink? We can’t make new water.It is true that current wastewatertechnology takes out many of thechemical pollutants. But of the 80,000or so on the market, only 126 areregulated. So when the North CoastRegional Board tells us that currentwastewater technology is safe andbeneficial uses are protected, it isbased on a dearth of information. Weare especially concerned about this,because the State Water Board andthe North Coast Regional Board arecurrently promoting new policy thatwill allow “low threat discharges”and “incidental runoff” of irrigatedwastewater, at the time summer flowswill be greatly diminished and impactscan be exacerbated by cumulativerunoff incidents.Russian River Watershed ProtectionCommittee believes this runoffproposal is being pushed throughwith inadequate anti-degradationanalysis. We believe that they needto have much more information onthe polluted contents of this treatedwastewater before the City of SantaRosa and other places are allowed tospread it around our environmentwith impunity. The Laguna de SantaRosa is one of the most impairedwater bodies on the North Coast, andirrigated and discharged wastewater isat least partially responsible. To loosenregulations even further before moreis known about this chemical soup isa travesty.It is much harder (and moreexpensive) to get rid of pollution onceit’s done its damage, than to stop it inthe first place. The focus should be onconservation and fixing leaky pipes, notallowing summer discharge.Russian R iver WatershedProtection Committee is in theprocess of developing a letter tosend the Regional Board aboutthis issue.The deadline forcomments is Jan. 29 th .Please contact Brenda Adelmansoon at rrwpc@comcast.net formore information.“In elevating to a level ofdemiworship people with bigbucks, we have been destroyingthe values of our futuregeneration. We need a totalrethinking of who the heroesare, who the role models are,who we should be honoring.”- RABBI BENJAMIN BLECHPlease see Willing toWork - page 101/15/09 - www.westcountygazette.com - 9