Legal Action on the Pipeline

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The Ethics of Intervention

Audubon Day at Bouverie May 17

Welcome New Members

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Backyard Birding: Landscaping for Birds

Bad Day at Black Point

Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast

Legal Action on the Pipeline

The National Audubon Society and the Madrone chapter have filed suit against the City of Santa Rosa to keep the proposed Geysers wastewater pipeline out of the Mayacamas Mountain Sanctuary.

In settlement discussions prior to the filing of the lawsuit, the City had failed to offer an ironclad assurance that it would not run the pipeline through the Sanctuary. If we had not filed by March 2, we would have lost our right to challenge the project in the future.

Settlement talks continue with the City, and we are still actively attempting to reach an amicable resolution of this dispute.

"Forever Wild?"
The proposed pipeline would carry Santa Rosa wastewater from the city to the Geysers in the extreme northeast corner of the county, where the water would be used to recharge the flagging steam energy fields. This is a major public works project, and its passage through the Mayacamas Mountain Sanctuary would mean not only miles of pipeline, but huge holding tanks and 24-hour pumping stations within the Sanctuary. The construction phase would bring massive earth-moving equipment and dynamiting.

The damage, in fact, would not even be confined to the public right of way on Pine Flat Road, as has been reported. There are significant sections of road where the grade and contour would require that the pipeline deviate from the right of way and make even greater incursions into the Sanctuary.

All this would violate the terms and conditions of the "forever wild" conservation easement on the property that was purchased by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District just four years ago, and that was critical to Audubon's acceptance of title to the land.

The Geysers Verses Other Options
It has also been erroneously reported that except for the pipeline route, the two Audubon societies "support the city's plan to pump treated wastewater to The Geysers for injection into the steam fields there" (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, March 3, 1998). Actually, neither the national organization nor the local chapter has taken a position on the project as a whole.

Madrone Audubon's position is to support wastewater disposal alternatives other than discharge into the Russian River, and to support reuse of the water, preferably for agriculture. A number of solutions have been proposed that would be consistent with this policy, and we have not advocated for any of these options over the others.

Our action is separate from the lawsuit filed by the Alexander Valley Association, which raises many concerns about the Geysers Project's impact on the Alexander Valley community. The Audubon action has just one major objective: to preserve the integrity of the Sanctuary's conservation easement.

The Prognosis
There are some indications that the public sector is beginning to hear our concerns. In a letter to the two Audubon societies, Kate Sater, Chair of the county Open Space Advisory Committee, states, "The Committee's discussion [at its meeting of February 19, 1998] made it clear that the members present unanimously support your position. Our interests include concern not only for impacts on all District easements such as the one on your sanctuary, but also for the potential for undermining the community's confidence in the integrity of the District's entire open space acquisition program."

In another promising development, the City of Santa Rosa has contracted with engineers to study an alternate route for the pipeline. We have contended all along that there exists a cheaper and easier route that avoids the Sanctuary, and we are hopeful this new study will bear that out. The study is expected to take nine months to complete.

Audubon's position, as summarized by Bill Payne, Chair of the Mayacamas Mountain Sanctuary Committee, is, "If and when the City commits to avoiding the sanctuary, our suit will be dismissed."