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Op-Ed: When a right goes wrong: Vineyard frost protection, river flows and salmon

Richard Morat, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Richard Morat is a retired federal fishery biologist, pursues a  conservation vocation and advocates for ecosystem sustainability.

An extreme frost in 2008 drove managers of budding vineyards to dewater reaches of the Russian River overnight. Water spray protects buds from freeze damage. Many juvenile salmon were killed by the dewatering. These salmon are protected by the Endangered Species Act, which requires that this not happen again.
The event spurred public resource agencies and other well-meaning organizations to rush to the rescue with plans for offstream storage that would reduce the need for simultaneous and cumulatively massive direct diversions from the river. The concept of diverting and storing water during wetter periods was sound, but it is not being carried out properly. Public agencies and organizations were too accommodating to the diverters and have made a bad situation worse.
The problem in implementation was in not defining “wetter periods.” To growers wanting to reduce costs, wetter periods means any time flow is in excess of the bare minimum that must be left in the channel. Unfortunately, this means that flows needed to maintain salmon populations will become less and less frequent and eventually all that will be left is an operation of extremes — either minimum flows or infrequent large flood flows. Minimum flow standards were not meant to be a long duration steady-state condition, but on the Russian they have become the norm.
Growers quickly realized that the offstream storage originally justified as an emergency frost-control measure could also be used for irrigation and heat control, further reducing wet season flows required for salmon. Many applications for changes in water rights to divert flows to offstream storage have been filed. Some have been approved by the state Water Resources Control Board. Likely many more applications will be filed in future years as growers seek to reduce costs. The challenge is balancing the expansion of water rights with the protection of other beneficial uses. Coming to grips with limits to growth is the challenge for all of us.
The answer to this dilemma is quite simple — require permits for offstream storage whereby the diverter can take only water that is surplus to the reasonable needs of other beneficial uses. For diverters to capture surplus water they need to take big gulps when the flows are well in excess of the minimum flow standards. This means investing in bigger pipelines and pumps to increase diversion rates and fill storage quickly during high flows when excess water is available.
We can accommodate growth in the wine industry without killing salmon in the Russian River, but it requires good faith on the part of the wine industry and a willingness to pay what is required to protect the environment.
Read more at: Close to Home: When a right goes wrong: Vineyard frost protection, river flows and salmon | The Press Democrat

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Coho vs. Pinot: On the Russian River, grape growing and fish don't aways mix

Will Parrish, NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN

As California lurches through its fourth year of an unprecedented drought, it is no surprise that long-simmering Russian River water conflicts have come to the forefront. At the center of this struggle are salmon and trout, whose epic life journeys play out on a scale akin to Homer’s Odysseus.

In July, roughly 1,000 rural Sonoma County residents overflowed classrooms and small meeting chambers at five informational sessions convened by the State Water Resources Control Board. It would be hard to exaggerate many attendees’ outrage. At one meeting, two men got in a fistfight over whether to be “respectful” to the state and federal officials on hand.
The immediate source of their frustration is a drought-related “emergency order” in portions of four Russian River tributaries: Mill Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek and Dutch Bill Creek. Its stated aim is to protect endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout. Among other things, the 270-day regulation forbids the watering of lawns. It places limits on car washing and watering residential gardens. It does not, however, restrict water use of the main contemporary cause of these watersheds’ decline: the wine industry.
“The State Water Resources Control Board is regulating lawns? I challenge you to find ornamental lawns in the Dutch Bill, Green Valley and Atascadero Creek watersheds,” said Occidental resident Ann Maurice in a statement to the water board, summing up many residents’ sentiments. “It is not grass that is causing the problem. It is irrigated vineyards.”
In what many see as a response to public pressure, the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, an industry trade group, announced last week that 68 of the 130 vineyards in the four watersheds have committed to a voluntary 25 percent reduction in water use relative to 2013 levels. According to commission president Karissa Kruse, these 68 properties include about 2,000 acres of land.
Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore, whose district encompasses more Russian River stream miles than that of any other county supervisor, has been strongly involved in developing the county’s response to the water board regulations and was the only supervisor to attend any of the state’s so-called community meetings.
“I applaud the winegrowers for stepping up,” Gore says in an interview. “I think they saw the writing on the wall. They knew they weren’t going to continue to be exempt from this sort of regulation for long, and there are also winegrowers already doing good things in those watersheds who wanted to tell their stories.”
Initially, state and federal officials who crafted the regulation said they preferred cutting off “superfluous” uses as a first step. “Our target is not irrigation that provides an economic benefit,” says State Water Resources Control Board member Dorene D’Adamo of Stanislaus. D’Adamo has been the five-member board’s point person for developing the regulations and was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown as its “agricultural representative.
“Many residents argue that there is no way of monitoring the vineyards’ compliance with the voluntary cutback because their water use has never been metered. Moreover, these residents’ passionate response to the regulation did not emerge in a vacuum. Rather, it tapped a deep well of resentment regarding the long-standing preferential treatment they say state, county and even federal officials have accorded the powerful, multibillion dollar regional wine industry.
As longtime Mark West Creek area resident Laura Waldbaum notes, her voice sharpening into an insistent tone, “The problem in Mark West Creek did not start with the drought.”
Read much more at: Coho vs. Pinot | Features | North Bay Bohemian

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Vineyard frost protection deadline nears for Sonoma County

Andrew Adams, WINES & VINES
The Feb. 1 deadline has been pushed back a few times because of various legal challenges, but this year growers who use water for frost protection near the Russian River in Mendocino and Sonoma counties will need to make sure they’re in compliance with a state-mandated water-use plan.
The required plan, known officially as a “water demand management plan” or WDMP, stems from an incident in 2008 when several juvenile salmon were found dead or stranded in pools of water along the banks of the river during a record-setting dry and cold period in March. Biologists with the National Marine Fisheries Services extrapolated from the number of fish that had been found that several thousand had died in total. Officials blamed a sudden drop in the height of the river to growers drawing water to protect their vines during a severe frost event.
Despite growers taking steps to minimize the risk to fish in the advent of another severe frost, the state Water Board moved forward with adopting a management plan in 2011. The plan stipulated that if growers were going to use water in the Russian River watershed for frost protection from March 15 through May 15 they’d have to do so in compliance with the new plan that required monitoring of the Russian River’s main channel flow and water level as well as its tributaries. Plan administrators are required to work with fish agencies to determine areas of particular risk to fish stranding, notify growers when rainfall and flow conditions could increase these risks as well as prepare annual risk assessment reports.
A few growers responded with lawsuits, and implementation of the new regulations stalled as the legal challenges wound their way through the courts. On Oct. 1, 2014, the California State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the State Water Board, and growers had to make plans to comply.
Read more via Vineyard Frost Protection Deadline Nears – Wines & Vines – Wine Industry News Headlines.

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Upcoming frost season means new rules for area grape-growers

Glenda Anderson, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Hundreds of grape growers and farmers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties are girding for the implementation of new state rules aimed at protecting imperiled fish in the Russian River by regulating stream diversions for frost protection.
With a three-year legal battle now concluded in the state’s favor, affected farmers will have to submit “water demand management plans” to the state water regulators by Feb. 1 and be prepared to implement those plans during the upcoming frost season — March 15 to May 15. Farmers are prohibited from drawing water during that time from the Russian River system, including wells dependent on that water source, without a plan.
“This year will be interesting. There are a lot of question marks” remaining about the rules, said Mendocino County Farm Bureau Executive Director Devon Jones.
Growers in Mendocino and Sonoma counties challenged the state rules in a pair of lawsuits, arguing that they infringed on growers’ water rights.
In Sonoma County, however, a majority of affected farmers have taken steps to comply with the rules, said Tito Sasaki, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.
But “there are some others who are not aware” of what they need to do, he said.
Farmers can learn more about the rules at a workshop being held at the fairgrounds in Cloverdale on Nov. 24, he said.
The rules are meant to prevent endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead trout from becoming stranded and dying when farmers pump water from the Russian River and its tributaries during spring cold snaps. Water is sprayed on vines to create a protective ice shield when temperatures fall below freezing. But when numerous farmers pump from the river at the same time, it can cause water levels to abruptly drop, stranding fish on dry land.
Read more via Upcoming frost season means new rules for area | The Press Democrat.

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State's top court declines to hear challenge to frost rules

Glenda Anderson, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A three-year legal battle between farmers in the Russian River watershed and state water regulators over frost protection rules has come to an apparent end. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request to consider a lower court’s ruling that upheld the state Water Resources Control Board’s authority to implement the controversial regulations.
The decision means hundreds of grape growers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties will be required to study stream flows and develop plans to manage diversions throughout the watershed, which contains more than 60,000 acres of vineyards.
The rules are aimed at avoiding sudden drops in river and stream flows that can occur when farmers throughout the river system pump water at the same time, potentially stranding threatened or endangered salmon and steelhead trout.
Spraying grape crops with water — which forms a protective barrier of ice around the fruit — is the preferred method of frost protection. Farmers say it is more effective than using wind machines.
Environmentalists lauded the Supreme Court’s denial of a hearing on the rules, while farm representatives worry about its potential ill effects on crops.
Read more via State's top court declines to hear challenge to | The Press Democrat.

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North Coast growers take fight over frost rules to state high court

Bill Swindell, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Local grape growers and farmers are taking their fight over controversial rules governing frost protection to the state’s highest court, escalating a legal battle over regulations meant to protect endangered fish in the Russian River and its tributaries.

In the first of two planned appeals, Redwood Valley grape grower Rudy Light on Friday asked the California Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision in June that upheld the state regulations, dealing a blow to opponents, who have described the rules as government overreach.

They were imposed in 2011 by the state Water Resources Control Board, which along with other agencies, said the new measures were needed to safeguard beleaguered salmon and steelhead trout populations in the Russian River. For the first time, the state required growers to track and report the water they draw out of the river system in spring to spray over their crops and protect them from frost.

The requirements were set to affect hundreds of growers across tens of thousands of acres in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Opponents in both counties were quick to sue the state, winning a first round in court in 2012, when Mendocino County Judge Ann Moorman struck down the rules, calling them “constitutionally void” and “invalid.”

Light and another group of plaintiffs, the Russian River Water Users for the Environment, who plan to file their appeal Monday, want that lower court ruling to stand. They have assailed the June 16 decision by the state’s 1st District Court of Appeal reversing Moorman’s ruling.

via North Coast growers take fight over frost rules | The Press Democrat.

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Appeals court upholds Russian River frost-protection rules

Glenda Anderson, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

An appellate court has upheld state rules regulating how hundreds of farmers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties divert water from the Russian River to ward off frost.

The rules, aimed at protecting fish, were struck down in 2012 by Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman, who declared the law to be “constitutionally void” and “invalid.”

The state’s First Appellate District court reversed her decision in a ruling filed Monday.

The State Water Resources Control Board lauded the decision.

“The board is pleased with the court’s unanimous decision upholding the Russian River frost protection regulations,” Michael Lauffer, the board’s chief counsel said in a statement.

Mendocino County Farm Bureau Manager Devon Jones said the appellate court ruling is a disappointment.

“We felt there was a very good opinion,” she said of the overturned ruling.

State regulators created the rules to prevent endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead trout from becoming stranded and dying when farmers pump water from the Russian River to ward off frost. Water is sprayed on vines to create a protective ice shield when temperatures fall below freezing.

The goal of the state rules is to avoid the sudden drops in river flows that can be caused when farmers throughout the river system pump water at the same time.

Several incidents in which rapid declines in river flows caused fish to become stranded triggered the regulations. Fisheries officials estimated some 25,000 salmonids were killed in two April 2008 episodes, one each in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The incidents coincided with freezing temperatures, state officials said.

via Appeals court upholds Russian River frost-protection rules | The Press Democrat.

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Turning water Into wine: An “unreasonable use” of water in California?

Richard Frank, LEGAL PLANET

On May 1, a California appellate court in San Francisco heard arguments in a case that is likely to affect how broadly–or narrowly–California’s State Water Resources Control Board can apply the state’s most powerful water law.

The case, Light v. California State Water Resources Control Board, involves a challenge by wine grape growers in the Russian River watershed of Northern California to a SWRCB rule limiting growers’ ability to divert water from the Russian River in order to spray their vineyards for frost protection purposes.  The Board adopted its “Frost Protection Regulation” in 2008, following complaints from federal wildlife officials that the grape growers‘ water diversions during cold spells resulted in rapid lowering of Russian River water levels and the resulting death of migrating salmon in the river.  (Federal biologists estimate that the growers’ 2008 diversions resulted in the deaths of 25,000 salmon, several species of which are threatened with extinction.)

The Board expressly relied on Article X, section 2 of the California Constitution in issuing and enforcing the regulatory limits on Russian River water diverted for frost protection purposes.  Enacted in 1928, Article X, section 2 proscribes the “waste or unreasonable use” of California’s water resources.  The Board cited this constitutional provision as authority to apply its Frost Protection Ordinance to almost all diverters of water from the Russian River and its tributaries, as well as to hydrologically connected groundwater.

via Turning Water Into Wine: An “Unreasonable Use” of Water in California? | Legal Planet.

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Bud break, frost looming for North Coast growers

Derek Moore, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Recent rainstorms have Sonoma County grape growers feeling more optimistic about being able to protect their crops from killer frost as full-blown bud break appears imminent.

“Right now we seem to be doing pretty good for frost protection. Most people have what they need,” said Doug McIlroy, director of winegrowing at Rodney Strong Wine Estates.

Farther north in Mendocino County, however, growers are still being warned that they probably won’t have any water for frost protection this season because of low reservoir levels and flow in the Russian River.

“Very limited, if any,” said Sean White, general manager of the Russian River Flood Control District.

via Bud break, frost, North Coast growers, vineyards, Sonoma County | PressDemocrat.com.

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The North Coast Wine Industry’s Latest Coup De Grace: Draining Our Rivers Dry

Will Parrish, ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER

The latest in the North Coast wine oligarchy’s long series of legislative coups de grace occurs on December 14th, as this issue of the Anderson Valley Advertiser goes to press. In what will surely be a 5-0 vote, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will rubber-stamp new regulations on frost protection in the Russian River water basin, now in its death throes after having been continuously ravaged by several generations of extractive enterprise.

In recent decades, the once-simple act of protecting new bud growth on grape vines from frigid temperatures has become tantamount to a war on rivers. The predominantly corporate alcohol farmers who wield executive authority over the North Coast’s land and politics almost universally combat frost damage via systems of overhead sprinklers that sprawl out across each row of grapes, dowsing them with a continuous coat of water on spring nights when local temperatures drop into the 20s.

via The North Coast Wine Industry’s Latest Coup De Grace: Draining Our Rivers Dry | Anderson Valley Advertiser.