The word "policy" implies the prudent management of one's affairs. Government policy is (we all hope) a paragon of this ideal. For example, a prudent water policy firmly incorporated into Sonoma County's General Plan would balance water supply with water consumption. Balance means that we would never run out. Water resources would be required to maintain equilibrium and therefore be a stable and sustainable resource.

Unfortunately, there is nothing prudent about Sonoma County's water policy. In fact, attempts to create a stable, sustainable water resource are being thwarted by special interests aided by County officials who are, in turn, urged on by municipal governments.

H.R. Downs gives us a brief history of recent water policy.

As many of you know, Sonoma County is conducting an update to the 2020 General Plan. The General Plan takes into account just about everything, generally speaking. The updated General Plan will contain official policy regarding housing, traffic and ag-tourism. But the updated water policy is the most important ingredient of all. Without water, nothing happens.

Sonoma County is already facing a serious water problem and the County needs a serious solution. Part of the strategy of the update has been to include public comment and the participation of 15 citizens—hand picked by supervisors—who form a formal representation of the various districts. This group, the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) breaks up into three-member subcommittees to cobble together policy drafts that will eventually be included in the General Plan update and become official policy.

The wry WRE

The Water Resource Element (WRE) was originally drafted by a three-member team who, over the course of an entire year, produced a document that was eventually presented to the full CAC. During the course of their work, this subcommittee heard from members of the public about wells going dry, saw evidence of massive overdrafting of groundwater under Rohnert Park, and were presented with numerous other indicators that Sonoma County's water situation is dire. Amazingly, despite having examined the evidence, the subcommittee produced a document without any of the strong language needed to ensure prudent management of water resources.

The public became deeply suspicious of their motives. All three members of this subcommittee, it turned out, are intimately connected with promoting urban sprawl. One man, Craig Harrington, is himself a developer with Quaker Hill Development and stands to personally profit from various land speculations. Steve Butler is a land use attorney who specializes in gaining permissions for shopping malls, tract housing developments and other large-scale projects. And Andy Rodgers is a geologist who has worked for most of Sonoma County's cities and even the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) itself. All these men are fine upstanding members of our community but to put them in charge of drafting water policy is like having Colonel Sanders put your chickens to bed. It was highly inappropriate.

Not surprisingly, the document that they produced was perceived by many on the CAC as woefully inadequate. The WRE was dramatically overhauled by the full CAC in the space of only six to eight days stretched out over a period of several months. (The CAC performed this work during its regularly scheduled bi-monthly, evening meetings.) Apparently because of these changes, the three-member team took the extraordinary step of voting themselves out of existence and the subcommittee was officially dissolved.

Legal aid and the County hustle

Mysteriously, the County failed to supply official legal assistance in creating these revisions. As a result, private citizens were forced to engage a law firm from Los Angeles with a specialty in water issues so that legal counsel could advise members of the CAC on particular language that would help create sound policy. Ed Casey from Weston, Benshoof provided valuable contributions in crafting language that will help Sonoma County avoid some of the nightmare scenarios witnessed in southern California—nightmares like water adjudication.

The behavior of the County staff, some CAC members (those with links to the County), and the sacred catechisms received from the exalted "Ad Hoc Committee" (Supervisors Tim Smith and Paul Kelly) during these proceedings made it appear as if they all wanted to just rush the WRE through as quickly as possible.

For heaven's sake, why? We have plenty of time to set it aside and think about it. Once it's carved into stone we'll have to live with it for 20 years.

For example, the CAC was not allowed to see a major groundwater report by Kleinfelder, Inc. conducted in water-scarce areas. At the previous meeting, April 21st, PRMD soldier Greg Carr announced that the Kleinfelder report had been submitted to the Supervisors who declared it unsatisfactory and sent it back for revisions. Some members of the public demanded to see this draft. Then at the next meeting County staff denied that the report was done, claiming never to have seen it at all. Spooky.

By the May 1st meeting, it appeared that Chairman Don Marquardt had been taken out to the County "woodshed" and spanked. Marquardt insisted that there was simply no time to wait for the Kleinfelder report or to think about the WRE any more. Marquardt's message was to just vote and pass it on to Planning and the Supervisors—that is, the Ad Hoc Committee of Tim Smith and Paul Kelly. It's time to "fish or cut bait", Marquardt mumbled petulantly about four or five times.

There was little else to do so they voted to pass it on. Fair enough. The CAC and certain members of the public had worked hard to include protective language. The WRE was about as good as it was going to get.

Then came the reality check.

WRE gets WAC'ed

Pete Parkinson and Greg Carr explaining the WRE at the WAC contractor's meeting

On May 5th, the Water Advisory Committee (WAC) held a contractors meeting (that means the cities). Contractors are entities who contract for water supply from the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA). The meeting took place at the Laguna Treatment Plant on Llano Road and raised quite a stink—pun intended.

SCWA brass showed up including boss Randy Poole; representatives from Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Valley of the Moon Water Agency, Santa Rosa, Forestville, and other water contractors. They all wanted to know what happened to the WRE?

Greg Carr and his boss Pete Parkinson from PRMD were there to explain things and to smooth the feathers of what looked like a clutch of clucking wet hens.

Carr essentially told them that the first draft done by the developer-guys was really swell and then for some gosh-darn reason it all got changed. Shifting in his seat and twitching his leg uncontrollably, Carr went on to say that the current WRE is not as "bad" (yes, his word) as it could be. But not to worry; the WRE, Carr said is "malleable" and once it gets to Planning and especially when it gets to the Ad Hoc Committee, meaning Supervisors Tim Smith and Paul Kelly, the Sun will shine again. Implying, I suppose that they intend to tear the whole thing apart and remove any language that might require development to balance its growth with water supply.

Carr and Parkinson, both experienced County two-steppers, danced around the changes and made light of them and tried to assure all the cities that there would be plenty of water for lots more urban sprawl. They explained that everything in the WRE is really separate and unconnected, you see, and can be easily cut and pasted with the original WRE produced by the developer-guys. In fact, by the end of their remarkable performance it seemed clear that the CAC was really a bunch of noodle-headed nobodies and it didn't make any difference what they did. The real power lay with Tim Smith and Paul Kelly who would do the actual writing of the WRE. Behind all the smoke and mirrors; there simply is no citizen input in the General Plan at all. It just looks like there is.

I had to take a deep breath.

Carr didn't say this in these exact words, but the way he danced around the issues you would have to have been a driveling idiot not to have gotten the message. The CAC is a minor annoyance and they can go on wasting their time because Planning will dance circles around them and the Supervisors will gut anything they come up with that limits urban sprawl or tries to put a lid on water consumption.

Of course, one has to wonder how this so-called "plan" is going to work out while the water table continues to decline, groundwater pollution continues to spread; groundwater recharge lands continue to be paved over and the demand for water continues to increase? How can Sonoma County's cities continue to sprawl and suck more water when we are going to run out of water? As they say, in this game, Nature bats last.