During the public comment period of the April 21st Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), former Sonoma County supervisor Ernie Carpenter wondered aloud (on the public address system) just what it is that "the Penngrove people" want, anyway?

He admitted that he had come late to the water party. Of course if he had been paying attention he would have learned that Penngrove like every other community in Sonoma County wants a groundwater management plan. Why? Because someone has got to be minding the store.

Forced by the lawsuit brought by more than 200 Penngrove residents, Rohnert Park agreed to at least ask for a groundwater management plan.

A groundwater management plan is one of the most important policy moves we can make in Sonoma County. The whole idea is extremely simple, to assess the amount of available water and then to tailor urban growth to fit the water budget. Nothing could be easier or more sensible.

Don't get your hopes up.

In an October 22, 2002 letter to Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) General Manager, Randy Poole, Bill Stephens, the Public Works Manager for Rohnert Park, says in part:

Dear Randy:
As we have discussed, the City of Rohnert Park has recently reached a settlement agreement regarding the Penngrove Litigation. One of the obligations of the City under this settlement is to request that the Sonoma County Water Agency develop and implement a groundwater management plan that conforms to the California Water Code with adequacy to qualify for state funding.

In accordance with this obligation, the City of Rohnert Park hereby requests that the Sonoma County Water Agency develop and implement such a groundwater management plan. Thank you for your consideration of this request. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Participating in a groundwater management plan is voluntary. Districts, counties and local governments are not required to budget their water, at least not yet. The problem surrounding what would normally be an easy decision is the tug and pull from special interests who want to continue building vast tracts of urban sprawl. These interests are aided by local governments (who make short term profits with sprawl) and by the Water Agency itself. The Water Agency supplies the water that fuels this growth.

Here, in part, is the answer that Bill Stephens received from Randy Poole, the SCWA General Manager.

Prior to contemplating groundwater management strategies, it is essential that the scientific basis for these decisions be valid and representative of actual conditions. This is accomplished by conducting a comprehensive basin-wide hydrogeological study.

The last comprehensive study for the Santa Rosa Plain Basin (which includes the Rohnert Park area) was conducted by the California Department of Water Resources in the late 1970's and early 1980's. This study is now outdated and not representative of current conditions. To address this issue, the Agency would support a cooperative effort among stakeholders such as the City of Rohnert Park to study groundwater conditions in the Santa Rosa Plain Basin.

Rohnert Park already has a scientific study of its groundwater conducted by PES Environmental, Inc. and discovered that, among other things, the City's rate of groundwater consumption vastly outstrips that of its neighbors. Rohnert Park's massive thirst for groundwater is largely responsible for the level of water in the underground aquifer dropping 150 feet in the last 25 years.

Aside from this study, opinions of other geologists and geohydrologists confirm the problem. All of this professional opinion merely underscores the documented evidence of hundreds of nearby farms and homes that report dry wells. As with any scientific examination, a comprehensive groundwater study of the entire county would eventually rely on selected data from which a comprehensive picture is then extrapolated. There is no need, for example, to drill monitoring wells in every square foot of the County to determine a need for a groundwater management plan. Scientists only need representative data from sample areas to make that determination. And we already have a number of such samples, the PES Environmental study being only one.

Another major report on three water-scarce areas has already been submitted in draft form to the County. This study, prepared by Kleinfelder Engineering, has achieved some notoriety of late because the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) was not allowed to see the contents before voting on the water element. Assuming that engineers follow the same scientific method as geologists and geohydrologists then the Kleinfelder report most likely found what everyone else has found, a big problem.

Claiming that data is out-of-date and that it would be expensive to mount a comprehensive study of the entire Santa Rosa basin, as Randy Poole seems to suggest in the above letter, is an unnecessary delay to implementing a groundwater management plan. Time is important because time wasted in budgeting water resources allows yet more irresponsible development to destroy the irreplaceable aquifer, not to mention valuable open space.

The need for a groundwater management plan is obvious. Whether we get one or not depends on how successfully citizens are able to resist the forces demanding more urban sprawl.

The fact that Rohnert Park has joined the Penngrove chorus demanding a groundwater management plan is definitely a step in the right direction.