storytemplate

Most people reading The Eel River Reporter know that an antique Rube Goldberg-style contraption called the Potter Valley Project siphons water from the Eel River and dumps it into the Russian River, Sonoma County’s main source of “surface” water. Readers also know that this practice has bled the once-mighty Eel River to a depressing dribble. In a moment, I’m going to tell you what you can do about this and how to save the planet at the same time, but first let’s recap that last century that whizzed by. Remember the 20th century?

The birth of “Bleed it and they will come”

The Potter Valley Contraption (which includes dams, tunnels and what not) was built by the “visionary” W.W. Van Arsdale way back in 1908. This was only two years after the Big One leveled San Francisco in 1906. After the great earthquake and still riding the wave of Manifest Destiny, Californians were building as fast and as far as they could. The thrust of Mr. Van Arsdale’s vision was to use the strong flow of the Eel River to power a hydroelectric plant. A hydroelectric plant was a new-fangled apparatus that generally bewildered and flummoxed the imaginations of even the most sophisticated individuals in 1908. But W.W. Van

Arsdale (known to intimates as “Dubya-Dubya”) was a man ahead of his time.
Dubya-Dubya knew that water, and not gold, is the power behind growth. Back in the wee hours of the 20th century, visionaries across America were feverishly clear-cutting anything in front of them and populating these instant vacant lots with taxpayers, consumers, commuters, children and dogs. It was a splendid plan and it made many men obscenely wealthy. Van Arsdale figured that if he bled the Eel River, the people would come. Dizzy with this vision, Dubya-Dubya would stagger around town and proclaim to all who would listen: “Bleed it and they will come!” (OK. Just kidding.)

The only problem was that Van Arsdale was neither as prescient nor as smart as some people may have thought. He may have only seen as far as building that hydroelectric plant and sticking a few dams in place and never grasped the consequences that his contraption would wreak further down the river—let alone the consequences that have spilled into our century. Of course, in 1908 who could have possibly imagined the 21st century? Cell phones? The Web? Running out of water? All would have been deemed impossible, preposterous fantasies.

Eel River water flowed into the rickety power plant all right, and the excess water splashed into Sonoma County for free. This boon created a false sense of security because people began to think of Sonoma County as an unusually water-rich county, when in reality the place has the same arid Mediterranean climate as neighboring counties. Nevertheless, building and development surged during the 20th century, with notable massive spurts following the two world wars. Vast stretches of urban sprawl fanned out across erstwhile farmlands, wetlands and groundwater recharge lands. These New Jerusalems were populated with thirsty people, thirsty lawns and thirsty industries of assorted description.

Huge projects are still coming off drawing boards in Sonoma County even today, a hundred years on. We’ve seen plans for 1,500 houses here and another 1,200 there, a strip mall or two here and a couple of big box stores over there. Santa Rosa alone has 10,000 building permits pending.

But the amount of water in the 21st century hasn’t changed from 1908, making demand an all-important issue. Development and building are no longer construction as usual; today any construction must be viewed as water demand. Today we are forced to see all development as water demand for two very good reasons: hydrology and Senate Bill 610.

Take it to the limit

Hydrologists tell us that our so-called water “resources” are really a single resource. California law may imagine that groundwater and surface water are two distinct entities, but in reality they are not. Science says they are one thing. We have a limited, finite amount of water to live with and no more. We can’t make new water. We can only use the same water over and over again. Obviously recycled water for drinking had better be clean. New development creates new demands on this limited supply of water. Every person who moves into a new development will convert 100 to 150 gallons of clean water into sewage every day. Someone has to clean up this mess before we can reuse that water.

Unfortunately, most existing sewage treatment plants are simply not designed to remove all the contaminants found in sewage. The effluent that comes out the back end of a typical sewage treatment plant still contains viruses, pharmaceuticals—and that’s everything from chemotherapy drugs to crack cocaine—and an entire family of chemicals called phthalates. Some phthalates are recognized as endocrine disruptors because they mimic hormones like estrogen. They are suspected of making fish change sexes and deforming amphibians. Phthalates are plasticizers and are found in flexible pipe; they make up the “new car smell”; they’re in shampoos, pesticides, paints, and other things. We’ve made them since the 1930s.

Here’s an astonishing thought: nobody has any idea what happens when you mix all these things together—phthalates, viruses, and all the drugs people take every day, and that’s only three categories of pollutants that remain in “treated” waste water. During the last century (well, at the beginning of it, at least) pollution wasn’t such a problem because nature had time to clean up after us.

Largely because of increasing demand, legislators passed Senate Bill 610 in 2001. In part, this law requires projects of 500 houses (or the equivalent) to provide evidence of a 20-year supply of water. The point of SB 610 is to eliminate so-called “paper water,” where a water supply may exist on paper but does not exist in reality.

“Oh my God, now what?”

You don’t need a degree in hydrogeology to grasp that ever-increasing demand on a limited supply of water is headed for trouble. In fact, in Sonoma County, not only is the demand increasing, the supply itself is decreasing. After a successful legal challenge by Friends of the Eel River, a small portion, about 15%, of the water bleeding from the Eel River into the Russian River stopped. It’s reasonable to expect that eventually the rest of this bleeding will stop completely. Stopping the bleeding is the only way to restore the Eel River.

Cutting off imported Eel River water isn’t Sonoma County’s only problem; excessive groundwater pumping in the once water-rich Santa Rosa Plain has created enormous “cones of depression” in the water table. When powerful wells pull hard from deep in the aquifer, the surface of the aquifer (called the water table) is pulled down into the shape of an inverted cone. The water table in some areas of the Santa Rosa Plain has dropped more than 100 feet in just a few decades. The pit of the deepest cone of depression can be many times deeper than that.

You probably see where I’m going with this. Declining supplies and ever-burgeoning demand will soon exceed the carrying capacity of the water system and we will face a widespread water shortage. We may not be out of water yet, not right now, but we can clearly see the bottom of the bucket. Is this bad? Oh yeah, it’s bad.

You are Superman and Superwoman to the rescue

Incredibly, and very happily, we can avoid a water catastrophe and you, dear reader, are the crucial instrument to make this happen. I’m not kidding. As promised, I’m about to tell you how to restore the Eel River, solve the Sonoma County groundwater overdraft crisis, and save the planet all at once. The solution involves hard, boring, sometime tedious work, but it is extremely effective. In fact, it’s the only way anything gets done.

You must jump into Democracy. Go to City Council Meetings. Attend Board of Supervisors meetings. Join environmental groups and participate in their activities. Donate money. Write letters to legislators, decision-makers, and local newspapers. Run for office. Help others get elected. Vote. Lead a veritable army of democracy and make things happen.

We are facing a water crisis, not because it was inevitable but because the population surrendered their power as democratic citizens. And look what happened: the management of our vital resources devolved to idiots. Participation in government, without doubt, is the downside of democracy because participation means extra work. If royalty ran the country, we could all go home after work and watch television because professionals would take care of government for us. But we don’t have professional noblemen to run things. We only have each other and that means you, dear reader, have a genuine role to play in solving these problems. Everyone has to do something or the system doesn’t work.

Luckily we have lots of tools to get the job done. We have groundwater management plans (the directions are spelled out in the California Water Code). Management plans can budget water and balance supply with demand in the same way that we balance a checkbook. California already has 167 functioning groundwater management plans, so budgeting water isn’t exactly a radical idea. All groundwater basins in the State could be managed this way.

Technology exists that can remove all contaminants from sewage and produce pure water. Orange County does this. Even better, a sensible watershed management program, like the one New York City enjoys, eliminates the need for such a pricey, high-tech plant. Solutions exist; it takes people to make them happen.

We know that this century will bring increased global warming, a degraded water supply, huge population pressures and more. But we also know that we can safely maneuver our way through this unknown thicket and save the planet one small step at a time. You just have to get up and do it.