Main Street: Attack of the sewage

If you look to the northeast on these cool mornings, you¹ll see
columns of steam rising above the mountains that divide us from
Lake County. We like to think of those columns as picturesque
little burps of escaped warmth from the natural geysers and hot
springs.
It is nice to think that, but it isn¹t true. Those columns of
steam are being released from giant cooling towers in the Geysers
Geothermal electricity project. Hot water has to be cooled off
before it gets dumped into local creeks or pumped back underground
to acquire more of the earth¹s heat.
How would you like to see those steam columns up close, every
day, here in Healdsburg? You might, if the city of Santa Rosa has
its way. The big city to the south is still on an uncontrolled
growth bender, and must dispose of its wastewater as it grows.
Santa Rosa has been told to stop polluting the Laguna, so it¹s
looking at a variety of ways to dispose of billions of gallons of
treated wastewater ‹ at least two of their ideas will be bad for
us.
Scenario One involves piping the treated sewage north, running
it through massive cooling towers, and then dumping the stuff into
the Russian River. Santa Rosa treats its wastewater, but it¹s still
full of heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and other stuff that Š comes
out of Santa Rosa residents, if you know what I mean. By dumping it
into the river, Santa Rosa hopes to dilute the bad stuff enough so
that it can be pumped out again near Wohler Bridge and reused, ad
nauseum.
The bad news for us is that both rural and municipal wells
hereabouts have straws in the river upstream of the Wohler wells.
We¹ll get a higher concentration of the yucky stuff. In addition,
those cooling towers have to be built somewhere. Santa Rosa is
studying two locations near Healdsburg, one on the RJW Lumber
parcel at the north end of town. The proposed bunker would be five
stories tall, just as wide, and a tenth of a mile long, with
cooling towers that look like Three Mile island coming out of the
top, and pumps that run 24/7.
After the water is cooled off and oxygenated, it would be dumped
into the river, and shortly thereafter, we would all be drinking
it. The plan would use the Geysers Pipeline, also known as the
Wastewater Super Highway, to transport the wastewater.
Scenario Two also involves the pipeline. Ten years ago, some
thought Marty Griffin was a conspiracy theorist when he predicted
that the pipeline was the first step in a vast wastewater plumbing
system. Now, we know Dr. Griffin was right. Another way to dispose
of all that wastewater is to build tributaries off the pipeline and
pump the stuff into remote canyons frequented now by trees,
wildlife and other inconvenient things. The sewage would be stored
behind earthen dams hundreds of feet high that will flood the
canyons and store the wastewater so that it can be used in the
summer to irrigate areas that currently don¹t have enough water to
support large-scale vineyards.
I appreciate what agriculture has done to preserve our natural
landscape, but we can¹t become another Central Valley. We need our
rows of green stuff surrounded by the summer-brown hills and oaks
that grew here long before we came along.
So Š will we end up with a pipeline transporting treated sewage
to be dumped into the river, or will it be sprayed onto our grapes?
Perhaps it will be a hybrid plan, with some of each.
Either way, it¹s not right. Santa Rosa is gearing up for another
massive development spurt. The hills on the southeast of that
community will be ruined, and look like a mirror image of
Fountaingrove on the northeast. The Roseland area will be annexed
and filled in. The Santa Rosa Avenue area will be built out, all
the way from Highway 101 to Petaluma Hill Road.
It¹s time for someone to say no. Santa Rosa must stop dumping
its growth residue everywhere else. Its time for Healdsburg,
Windsor, and the unincorporated areas to band together, hire a
flock of lawyers, and file the biggest class-action suit you ever
saw.
Better yet, it¹s time to place an initiative on the ballot
preventing Santa Rosa from forcing us to take its sewage. Let¹s
legally require Santa Rosa to absorb the impacts of its growth
within its own sphere of influence.
If Santa Rosa wants to grow, let Santa Rosa keep its own waste
products. Most members of the Santa Rosa City Council live within a
few miles of each other on the east side. How about putting those
cooling towers and holding ponds in the Hidden Valley neighborhood?
Or the Chanate area? Maybe the Procter Terrace neighborhood could
handle it.
Santa Rosa, keep your shit to yourself.
Ray Holley is ready to rumble. He can be reached at
[email protected].