Sonoma County's water woes—due in no small part to the lack of a groundwater management plan— have hit the west county particularly hard. The western areas of Sonoma County may be covered with state-identified "prime groundwater recharge" lands but ideal permeability is not the same thing as storage capacity. West county locales frequently suffer water scarcity even in the best of times. Mismanagement, poor planning and a careless disregard of irresponsible development projects have left western Sonoma County citizens livid.

Herewith a sampling of recent public observations by west county residents.

This letter was originally presented to the Sebastopol City Council

Members of the City Council and Citizens, as a long time resident of Cooper Road, I recently came before the City Council in the public comment period for the Laguna Vista project and voiced my concerns regarding the impacts of the project from the standpoint of sustainability of groundwater resources. I stand here again tonight as this project moves forward to raise my voice of concern regarding groundwater resources. As you are likely aware, Cooper Road is the southern boundary of the City of Sebastopol; however, I submit to you that the demarcation of a City/County boundary is a fictitious boundary at best. You see, it is the concern of many residents of Cooper Road that the City of Sebastopol municipal well network as it currently exists may be adversely impacting groundwater supply in the greater sense of things.

As I am familiar about the existing municipal water supply system in the City of Sebastopol, it is my understanding there are currently four municipal wells that supply somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 gallons per day for domestic supply. Well #7 was installed by the City in the late 1990’s and is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Cooper Road and Highway 116. The well is approximately 700 feet deep and has a screened interval that was designed to lessen the impacts to local domestic water supply wells in the area of the well. In fact a Groundwater Availability Study was conducted prior to the installation of Well #7 which indicated there was ample water available for the municipal supply. I have reviewed the study and it also concluded that the radius of influence of the well extended approximately ½ mile in every direction of the well. The radius of influence is the radius of effect to the localized piezometric water surface or depletion of the water table as the well is drawn down over time.

Similarly, Well #6 is located to the north of Well #7 and at the western side of the Cotter property. I have been told by City official that Well #6 is similarly constructed as Well #7 in depth and construction details. These two wells in theory supply 50% of the available water to the City of Sebastopol.

In the past few years the City of Sebastopol worked with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to institute a well head protection ordinance that would have implemented zoning and building restrictions in the areas of the existing City wells in an effort to protect the existing well system from surface and subsurface impacts. I will remind the Council that there have been several City wells, Well #5 on Fannon Street and Well #4 at Spooner Park, that have been impacted by industrial solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons that entered the groundwater through illegal dumping of solvents from dry cleaners or industrial users as well as leaking underground fuel storage tanks. It is my understanding that the well head protection ordinance was not implemented and no such ordinance is in place today. I find this fact very interesting as a City that is completely dependent on groundwater for domestic water supply and is in the current position of adding an additional 6% to the existing load of the system with the proposed project. In fact the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment that was prepared for the project site missed the fact that there appears to be four abandoned underground fuel storage tanks currently at the Analy Bike Shop, a historic gas station that is located within several hundred feet of Well #6 and the project site. No mention is made of the site and it appears that it remains undiscovered and at this point uncharacterized with respect to the potential impacts to another City well from yet another leaking underground tank site. While it is not the responsibility of the current applicant to protect the City wells with respect to off-site contamination, it appears the Phase I missed the tanks even though they fall within the ASTM search radii for the project site. Once again the existing system remains vulnerable unbeknownst to the same City officials that assert that there is plenty of water available.

I have reviewed many of the documents for the proposed development. I have also listened to City officials that indicated through the EIR process that additional demand on the system does not require a mitigating effect as the City is using only 30% of the available supply. Really??? I would submit that I have not seen the data that would support this statement. In fact I would submit that the actual mitigation of additional demand to the City system is a $10,000 well drillers bill for the installation of new well to properties that lie within the radius of influence. I can personally attest to the fact that many wells on Cooper Road in the area of Well #7 are being impacted in a negative way given the City’s current usage. You see, the fictitious line that separates the City from the County users of the groundwater resources is truly imaginary.

I would like to ask for a full assessment of the groundwater resources available to the City of Sebastopol with full consideration given other users of the resources including the outlying County areas. This should be considered during the current EIR process for this development and all future developments. It would be irresponsible to add further use to a system that is inadequately defined with respect to sustainability and further impacts to private wells in the outlying areas. Additionally, the City should fully implement the well head protection standards that would start the process of protecting the long term water supply for the City. The EIR process we discuss tonight must look at the water availability of all users and the sustainability of the current and future water supply system in which we all rely upon.

Sincerely,

David Noren

Sebastopol