The High Cost Of Ending The Eel River Diversion

Previously, I wrote ‘A Tale of Two Rivers in Mendocino County: Where the Eel and Russian Rivers Meet,’ as the beginning of what would be a series of articles that took the time to focus on the different regions and communities that depend on the Russian River, and by extension, transfers of water from the Eel River. The purpose of this series is to examine and educate. To that end, and considering the current turn of events, I am continuing with the originally intended series of articles. 

PG&E has decided to withdraw the proposal that was submitted by the Inland Water and Power Commission (IWPC), Sonoma Water and Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT) to include the building of new infrastructure to continue some level of water transfer (diversion) from the Eel River to the Russian River after removal of Scott and Cape Horn Dams as a part of PG&E’s decommissioning plan being submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). 

What does this mean for the communities dependent on the Russian River? For now, we have more questions than answers as to what this means for the plans and progress of the newly formed Eel-Russian Project Authority, the newly formed JPA consisting of representatives from IWPC, Sonoma Water, Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and RVIT. It calls into question the feasibility of installing new infrastructure to continue to divert water from the Eel River to the Russian River and if we are able to, and what that new regulatory pathway will be. 

If the ability to divert water from the Eel River to the Russian River ceases completely, it could have severe consequences for the 650,000 people who depend on the Russian River, including Marin County. 

Let’s look at Marin Municipal Water District (Marin Water), which is in the Mt Tamalpais watershed and serves 191,000 people including residents of San Rafael, Tiburon, and Sausalito. The Marin County Civil Grand Jury just came out with a report in June 2023 calling into question Marin Water’s ability to meet the goals in their Water Resources Plan 2040. Their grand jury goes on to advise Marin Water to increase water resiliency through conservation, upgrading meters to quickly detect waste/leaks, expand and increase water recycling capacity, expand system capacity to transfer water and increase available supplies by 10,000 AF per year. Marin Water purchases up to 10,000 AF of water annually from Sonoma Water which accounts for 25% of their water supply. 

If Sonoma loses the ability to supply Marin with water from the Russian River, very costly projects would need to be undertaken by Marin Water to supply its customers. The cheapest project to increase supply is to build a pipeline via the Richmond bridge to purchase and import water from the Sacramento River via East Bay Municipal Utility District (East Bay MUD) with a price tag of $111 million for the infrastructure. The cost to deliver the water to Marin Water would be $2500 per acre-foot. Currently, Marin Water is charging $2,000/AF to low tier users. 

The other options looked at in the grand jury report include desalination plants, and increases to water treatment and delivery capacity. Without water from Sonoma Water, Marin Water would likely need to undertake most, if not all, the proposed projects to secure their water supply. This could cost upwards of $500 million in capital outlay. Marin Water carries $139 million in outstanding bond debt and could increase that by $150 million if it substantially increased rates. This still would not be enough to afford all these projects. 

In March of 2023, Marin Water put forward a rate study and increased rates. Using a customer rate calculator they have available online, a family of 4 using 55 gallons per person per day was paying $85 per month until July 2023 when rate hikes pushed their bill to $115 per month. This summer, that will rise to $130, summer 2025 to $145, and summer 2026 to $150. This is to rebuild reserves, account for inflation, and increase their capital improvement/maintenance budget. This does not take into account funding any projects to increase water supply. 

In 2023, Marin County Civil Grand Jury found Marin Water’s follow-through on their hazard mitigation plan adopted in 2022 to address safety issues to protect water infrastructure to be inadequate partially due to slow progress on identified necessary infrastructure improvement projects.

These are just the financial effects on one water district in one county that depends on Russian River water, Marin County, which uses up to 10,000 acre-feet a year. Losing the option entirely for water transfers means losing 50,000-60,000 AF a year. The remaining 40,000-50,000 less acre-feet would come from Mendocino and Sonoma County water supplies. I have not even mentioned the effect on those counties. That will be for another day, in another article.