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          THE WEST COUNTY WASTEWATER PLAN
   A THREAT TO PROPERTY RIGHTS, AGRICULTURE,  & THE ESTEROS

The Agricultural Property Rights Alliance, a coalition of ranchers, 
dairymen, west county residents,  environmentalists, and concerned 
citizens  have organized in opposition to the West County Wastewater 
Plan.  The details and consequences of this plan have not been explained 
to the citizens of Sonoma County  or to the rate payers who are funding 
the project  and we believe that when the facts are made public, a 
majority of the county will share in our opposition. 

 The rate payers of the Subregional Wastewater Disposal System are 
funding a project that is not only flawed in its concept but also poses 
a direct threat to property rights,  agriculture, and the environment.

The Project is expensive.

The West County Plan proposes that a large wastewater reservoir,  
contained by a dam as much as 250 feet high and 2800 feet long,  would 
be constructed on prime agricultural land on one of five sites in the 
Two Rock / Bloomfield / Valley Ford area of southwestern Sonoma County.  
Wastewater would be pumped to the reservoir from the Santa Rosa plain 
for storage during the winter months and then used to irrigate 
surrounding pastureland during the summer.  Santa Rosa estimates that 
the cost of the project would be $250 million .  That figure does not 
include  the cost of condemning land  which could run as high as 30 
million just for the necessary acreage or costs for mitigating wetlands 
destroyed by the project.  To purchase homes and businesses condemned 
for the project would push the costs much higher.  The current estimate 
for studies is 12 million, the bulk of which has been spent in the West 
County. All of this adds up to an incomplete and conservative cost of at 
least $300 million dollars, and  public works projects usually far 
exceed their original budgets by the time they are completed.  

Rate payers are now paying about $10 per person, or an average of $32 a 
month in sewer charges for a family of three.  These are the highest 
sewer rates in California.  If the West County project is approved, it 
is estimated that those rates could double to about $65 a month. 

The Project would destroy homes, ranches, dairies and the Estero 
ecosystem.
 
The City of Santa Rosa claims that the West County Plan would benefit 
agriculture and  once said that it was voluntary.  Now that they have 
seen opposition in the West County,  they admit that they are willing to 
condemn property in order to complete the project.  Many of the ranches 
and dairies that would be taken have been family operations for several 
generations.  These are the same people who would supposedly benefit if 
the West County Plan were approved.  They are opposing it because they 
know that it would actually remove as much as 10,000 acres from  
agricultural use, destroy ranches and homes through construction and 
condemnation, and introduce heavy metals and other pollutants into the 
Estero ecosystem. 

 The project area is entirely within the watershed of  the Esteros  
Americano and San Antonio.  The proposed irrigation would take place in 
the valley bottoms adjacent to stream beds.

Another reason why the landowners are opposing the plan is contained in 
the �Irrigation Management Plan� put out by the City.  It states that 
�the City can indirectly control management practices that are being 
utilized on lands which receive reclaimed water by participating in the 
planning process and by providing incentives (and penalties, where 
needed) that encourage application of identified Best Management 
Practices (BMPs).�  In plain language, this means that all landowners 
who contract for the wastewater will lose control over their property 
since the City will control the timing and amount of wastewater that is 
used. 

The project is opposed by the very people it would supposedly benefit.

The Agricultural Property Rights Alliance has created what we call the 
Red Zone Map.  A petition was circulated throughout the project area and 
signed by every landowner who opposed the plan.  On a parcel map, the 
property of every owner who signed the petition was colored red,  
approximately 26,000 acres.  The Red Zone Map covers the entire project 
area.   Santa Rosa is claiming that they have over 3000 acres in the 
West County committed to irrigation, but that is simply not true.  Their 
claim is based on a postcard mailing made in 1994,  asking ranchers if 
they were interested in learning about the West County Plan.  Santa Rosa 
interpreted a  �yes�  response to mean that  those people wanted the 
wastewater.  The truth is that all of those landowners have signed the 
petition and become part of the Red Zone Map.  The few ranchers who 
organized in favor of the plan have since sent a letter to the city 
withdrawing their support. 

Santa Rosa is now paying ranchers to take the wastewater.

Santa Rosa has been paying ranchers northwest of the city tens of 
thousands of dollars a year to take the wastewater but they say that 
they would  like to sell it to the West County.  The ranchers of the 
West County will not pay for it,  do not want it for free,  and will not 
be paid for it because they understand that the West County Plan would 
take their ranches from  them or their neighbors, turn prime 
agricultural land into swamp land, and pollute the Esteros. 

The West County is not farmland.    

The West County is not flat farmland,  but rolling pastureland which is 
why widespread irrigation is not possible.  The terrain, along with the 
cool,  foggy summers and shallow, highly erodible, loamy soils make the 
region unsuitable for growing crops.  This is precisely why it is ranch 
and dairy land and not farmland.   The only irrigable areas (below the 
15% allowable grade) are in the valley bottoms along the Esteros and 
stream courses where winter runoff collects.  The area is also referred 
to as the Estero Lowland because it is a low lying break in the Coast 
Range-  the second largest fog gap on the California coast,  the Golden 
Gate being the largest.

The City has suggested that crops can be grown in the West County such 
as artichokes and strawberries but of all the crops mentioned at the 
Socio-Economics Round table held last December,  including non-irrigated 
crops,  none would be well suited for the West County due to the climate 
and soils.  If they could be grown in the area,  they would be.  Water 
is not the critical factor. That is precisely why the West County is 
pastureland, not farmland.

The City also suggested that the ranchers could grow their own feed 
instead of going out of the county to obtain it as they now do,  but by 
the City�s own admission,  the ranchers would be able to produce only 9 
to 12% of their current needs and have to remove land from pasture to do 
it.  They would still have to obtain 88 to 91% of their feed from 
outside sources.
Again, water is not the issue.  If it made economic sense to grow hay 
the ranchers would be doing it.  The fact is that any type of alfalfa,  
much less dairy quality alfalfa,  cannot be grown in the West County. 

The project would remove 10,000 acres from agricultural use and 
introduce wastewater into the Esteros.

Under the plan, growing anything,  including grass, would be impossible 
because of the amount of wastewater that would be dumped on the ground.  
Each of the reservoirs has been designed to hold 4 and a half billion 
gallons of wastewater.  The city proposes to irrigate 5000-6000 acres.  
That would mean that over 33 inches of wastewater would be released onto 
the pastures during the summer months.  The average rainfall for the 
area is about 33 inches.  Runoff,  after a typically dry summer,  occurs 
in November or December  when rainfall totals reach about 10 inches and 
the shallow soils become saturated.  Most of the subsequent 20 to 25 
inches runs into the creeks and flows into Bodega Bay by way of the 
Esteros.  Obviously,  without a dry season,  the land would become a 
swamp,  unfit for cultivation or grazing and thus precluding any 
agricultural use.  Runoff would occur year round despite the fact that 
Santa Rosa has said that the project would be managed  so that no 
wastewater would enter the Esteros.  Several times, during an average 
winter, when a high tide coincides with a storm,  the Estero Americano 
will back up and flood most of the low lying areas between its mouth and 
the town of Bloomfield.  A similar phenomenon occurs along the Estero de 
San Antonio. This area is entirely within the project area.  Any 
wastewater or residue that is on the ground would be picked up and 
carried directly into the Esteros, Bodega Bay and Tomales Bay.

The Esteros are the only remaining estuarys on the California coast that 
have not been  damaged or polluted by development.  They are a mixture 
of fresh and salt water,  supporting a rich ecosystem of marine life, 
plants, animals and birds.  A  congressional bill is being  written that 
would protect  them.  The West County Plan would compromise that effort. 

The Project would pollute the wells and springs of the West County.

The reservoirs and irrigation would also compromise the drinking water 
in the West County where the people rely upon spring water and wells.  
All of the reservoirs would flood valleys containing numerous springs, 
thus making it easy for the wastewater to enter the aquifer.  The 
irrigation alone is a threat to the many shallow wells in the area.  
Santa Rosa has said that the wastewater is not drinkable and that it 
contains heavy metals,  nitrates and other pollutants.  Why,  then,  
should the people,  animals and birds of the West County be forced to 
drink it?  Santa Rosa has also said that they will not bond or indemnify 
anyone for any problems associated with the project.  In other words,  
if wells become polluted or heavy metals are found in the milk produced 
in the area, Santa Rosa will accept no responsibility for the problem.

The City also admitted that they have done no recent tests for heavy 
metals or toxic buildup as possible effects of the wastewater on 
pastureland and drinking water,  yet they are willing to go ahead with 
this project and put West County residents,  livestock and wildlife at 
risk.