Virtual town hall to update public on drought Sept. 1

County 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, Sept. 1, 2022, the fifth in the county’s series of monthly public forums on the drought.

Hosted by Supervisor Chris Coursey, the town hall will feature a panel of experts reporting on the relationship between the drought, climate change and wildfire, including an updated weather forecast for Sonoma County; a report on an innovative project to store water in underground aquifers for use in future droughts; and a presentation on how to install a water catchment system or rain garden before winter.

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 Chris Coursey; Brooke Bingaman, lead forecaster, National Weather Service’s Bay Area office; Marcus Trotta, principal hydrogeologist, Sonoma Water; and Connor DeVane, climate resilience programs coordinator, Daily Acts 
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, Sept. 1, 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 seven months of 2022 have been the driest in Sonoma County in 128 years, with rainfall 19.8 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.

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Media Contacts:
Ted Appel, Communications Specialist, County of Sonoma 
publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org
(707) 565-3040

Andrea Rodriguez, Communications Manager, Sonoma Water 
Andrea.Rodriguez@scwa.ca.gov
(707) 331-2040