We received a response to the Sonoma County Water Coalition questionnaire from Shirlee Zane (SZ). No response has been received from the other 3rd District run-off candidate: Sharon Wright. We will post her response if it is received. If you have contact with Sharon Wright, please encourage her to respond to our questions.

  1.   Please outline your concept of a sustainable water policy for Sonoma County, which would guarantee clean water for future generations?

(SZ) A sustainable water policy would include a County wide water audit that includes both surface water surveys and county-wide groundwater studies. This report should be the basis of all future land use policy. Our aquifers desperately need recharging and we need a comprehensive water conservation plan that does not punish consumers by increasing their rates when conserving.

I would also like to see a mandatory requirement for all future construction to include dual piping for grey or treated waste water and for drinking water, this would ensure a 0% increase in usage.

A sustainable water policy would also include a zero net carbon emissions plan for the energy we use to provide our water, because the impacts of Global Warming are incredibly significant.

  2.   If you support comprehensive water management planning in Sonoma County, how would you implement that policy as County Supervisor? Assuming you do support such a policy, how soon after election would you propose a groundwater ordinance, and what would such an ordinance look like?

(SZ) I support a comprehensive water management plan for Sonoma County. I have experience in lobbying and policy formation and I am a graduate of the California Women’s Policy Institute. I would work with other members of the Board of Supervisors to expedite a plan that would ensure sustainability, quality controls, implement the latest in conservation technology and maintain our ecosystems.

I would suggest what we really need first is intense public education to lead people to understand that surface and groundwater are all one, and while certainly respecting individual property rights we also have to respect the rights of the whole. What so many people fail to understand is that if your neighbor has a bigger and deeper straw in the ground (or the river) than you do, they are sucking "your water" and you in turn may be sucking some other neighbors' water. Ultimately we all have to be in this together and it is in no one’s interest to have anyone’s well go dry. Ordinances may ultimately be necessary but we really have not given public education (which would include meaningful water audits) followed by voluntary compliance a chance. And until we have reliable information we really do not know the type of ordinance needed. There are certainly areas in the county such as the Santa Rosa Plain that have been in a serious overdraft position for a long time, and perhaps area specific ordinances would be an appropriate first step as reliable information is obtained. It would be extremely dangerous to wait until the entire county has been studied (groundwater studies take a long time) before responding to known crisis areas.

I am happy to move very quickly with the strongest enforceable ordinance possible, as soon as the water and environmental community is ready to help make it happen for optimal speedy success potential!

 3.   In February 2005, the State Water Resources Control Board directed SCWA to provide "a detailed plan of water conservation efforts which will result in no increase in Russian River diversions." What methods would you support to ensure "no increase in Russian River diversions?"

(SZ) Water Conservation is one of my top priorities; which includes conservation, reuse with energy costs minimized and greenhouse gas emissions minimized (to the point of near carbon neutrality). Also with implementation costs all done optimally, as much as is reasonable. (For example, put purple plumbing in new construction and in roadways when they are being reconstructed anyway, but in general I wouldn’t want to delay significant water and energy savings by an extra 5 or 10 years.)

Movement is underway to stop illegal existing Russian River diversions. To ensure no increase in diversions I support ongoing efforts to stop illegal diversions and not to grant any new ongoing diversions without a sustainable water balance.

 4.   What water-production and distribution policies should the County develop to both curb the growth of greenhouse emissions and eventually reduce them to levels that natural systems can handle?

(SZ) This is another top priority for me. We really need to rethink everything in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, and limited water and energy supplies. Every generation has wanted to leave things better for the next generation. We have a real challenge.

I believe all new construction should have purple plumbing for landscaping. (We will need solutions to avoid runoff.) Can we get beyond previous problems and someday have permits for composting toilets? If not, new construction should have purple piping for toilet flushing.

Are people willing to have community lawns at parks and schools for athletics and gatherings watered with wastewater and have low water use gardens at home? Are we willing to require that every golf course and every large lawn space be watered solely by discharge water? Are we willing to have incentive programs to re-plumb existing buildings eventually for purple plumbing for using wastewater to flush toilets? Or as above, can we get beyond previous problems and someday have permits for composting toilets?

I will work towards rainwater harvesting permitting being made less expensive and easier. This could also help with our flooding challenges.

(Someday if we use healthy soaps and cleaning products will we be allowed to use grey water from our home showers and sinks and washer to water our homes greenery and forgo extra pumping energy? Will there be permitted healthy systems to use our grey water for fruit trees and vegetable gardens also?)

  5.   SCWA staff and consultants have stated explicitly that water diverted from the Eel River through the Potter Valley Project to the Russian River is not needed to supply agency customers in the long term. What is your position on this diversion?

(SZ) Water diversions create many problems for fish and the environment. We should hold SCWA firm that we do not need the diversions and discontinue the diversions.

 6.   Will you support wastewater reuse for irrigation only if it does not result in incidental runoff? What methods would you support to prevent irrigation runoff?

(SZ) I am supportive of reuse, but I am concerned about incidental runoff. I would support a variety of measures to prevent irrigation runoff. I believe in bio-swales for stormwater runoff too. So having bio-swales to prevent incidental runoff in addition to stormwater runoff makes sense! Additionally, irrigation should never be overdone. All water is precious and day to day conservation and education needs to be more aggressive.

 7.  Do you support the concept of building large regional wastewater treatment systems in environmentally-sensitive areas, such as those proposed to serve Camp Meeker, Occidental, and Guerneville, as opposed to more local solutions? What are your ideas for resolving the Subregional Wastewater Treatment Plant, Laguna, and Russian River winter discharge and water quality problems?

(SZ) My plan to stop all discharges would be conservation and reuse, and having indirect discharge systems that are really environmentally sound. Perhaps large reuse areas could have an indirect discharge component. I believe there are many creative solutions. Using wastewater for algae and energy generation is being tested in Santa Rosa!!! A new grant has been obtained recently. This is very exciting! I would like the County to help with this also. Wastewater can have beneficial uses, but we need to be careful.

 8.  As County Supervisor what would be your position on continuing to build housing and commercial development in flood plains?

(SZ) I do not support building on flood plains. We must maintain our urban boundaries and be cognizant of the devastating flooding we have experienced here in Sonoma County just within the last 10 years. All development policies should include drainage review and design.

 9.   What is your position on allowing gravel mining to continue in and beside the Russian River?

(SZ) I am opposed to gravel mining in and beside the river on the grounds that riverbeds are natural water purifiers and provide water storage. We must put a halt to all riverbed gravel mining and support the sustainability of the Russian River.

 10.   Do you support changes in the governance and mandate of the Sonoma County Water Agency SCWA? If so, what changes would you support?

(SZ) Many years ago Virginia Strom-Martin and others started discussion about changing the form of governance for our water agency. The idea of establishing an elected Board (instead of the Board of Supervisors) to oversee the agency, similar to what is already done in Marin County, did not get very far at that time.

Recently that idea is gaining momentum and there is a local leader in the Assembly to carry a bill, and probably in the Senate as well. Again, I would want to be careful to assure no significant negative side effects.

Caution is advisable. I would support changes that enable us to respond more quickly and forcefully for Climate Recovery and strengthening our water supplies and flood preparedness in environmentally sound ways while assuring no significant negative side effects.

There may be a periodic or firm environmental majority on the Board of Supervisors relatively soon. An environmental majority could do wonderful things!