Virtual town hall on drought to update emergency response plans, impacts of water curtailments

En español »

State, county and local officials will present an update on the drought and its impacts on Sonoma County during a virtual town hall meeting at 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 4, 2022, the fourth in the county’s series of monthly public forums on the drought.

Hosted by Supervisor James Gore, chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, the town hall will feature a panel of experts reporting on emergency planning underway to respond to the drought, the potential for water rights curtailments along the Russian River, and an innovative program in Windsor that is distributing free treated wastewater to residents and businesses.

Register in advance to view the town hall live on Zoom and to pose written questions to panelists during the briefing. Questions may also be submitted in advance to publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org.

The briefing will be streamed live on the County of Sonoma Facebook page. Live translation in Spanish can be viewed on the County of Sonoma YouTube channel.

Who: Supervisor James Gore; Christopher Godley, director of the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management; Philip Dutton, senior engineer with the State Water Resources Control Board; and Veronica Siwy, deputy director of water and environmental management with the Town of Windsor

What: Update on the drought situation in Sonoma County

Where: The virtual town hall will be streamed to the public in English on Zoom and on the County of Sonoma Facebook page. A version of the town hall featuring Spanish interpretation also will be available on the County of Sonoma YouTube channel.

When: Thursday, August 4, 4 p.m.

This webinar is one in a series of virtual town halls that the County of Sonoma and Sonoma Water are offering to inform the public about the drought emergency and its impacts on Sonoma County. The town halls are being held on the first Thursday of each month through the fall.

The Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency due to drought conditions on April 27, 2021. Since then, a third consecutive year of below-average rainfall in the Russian River watershed has left the region’s two primary water storage reservoirs, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, near historic lows. The first six months of 2022 have been the driest in Sonoma County in 128 years, with rainfall 20.6 inches below normal.

Sonoma Water is a wholesale water supplier to nine cities and water districts that serve more than 600,000 residents in Sonoma and Marin counties. Visit sonomawater.org/drought to learn more about the drought.

### 
Media Contacts: 
Matt Brown
Communications Specialist, County of Sonoma 
publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org
(707) 565-3040
575 Administration Drive, Suite 104A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403

Andrea Rodriguez
Communications Manager, Sonoma Water 
Andrea.Rodriguez@scwa.ca.gov
(707) 291-9887