Sonoma Creek Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)

Sonoma Creek TMDL Programs

Clean water is essential for fishing, swimming, drinking, agriculture, protecting wildlife habitat, and other beneficial uses. Since 1972, when Congress passed the federal Clean Water Act, local agencies and residents in the Sonoma Valley Watershed have made great strides toward improving the water quality of our local streams. As part of a much larger effort to address continued water quality issues, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board develops and implements Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) action programs.

Sonoma Creek is currently listed under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act as impaired for excess sediment, pathogens, and nutrients. On February 29, 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the Basin Plan amendment adopted by the Regional Water Board in June 2006, incorporating a pathogen TMDL action and implementation plan in the Sonoma Creek watershed.

Due to declining native fish populations and evidence of excessive erosion, Sonoma Creek has been officially designated as impaired by sediment since 1996. The Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a Basin Plan amendment incorporating a TMDL for sediment and a Habitat Enhancement Plan for the Sonoma Creek Watershed on December 10, 2008. The amendment must now be approved by the State Water Resources Control Board, the State Office of Administrative Law, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Outreach Activities for TMDL Policy Development

One of the key components of the Southern Sonoma County Resource Conservation District (SSCRCD) and Sonoma Ecology Center’s (SEC) TMDL outreach program is working with stakeholders to generate written input and comments to improve the TMDL development process and action plan thereby providing valuable feedback to afford realistic and practical compliance by the community. Through in-house data analysis and input, and close collaboration between the SSCRCD and SEC, they have provided guidance to stakeholders, answered questions, and provided language for public process commentary on the Sonoma Creek Sediment TMDL. Outreach services included a variety of ongoing communication formats and tools including: regular and special meetings of the community partners and businesses in the earlier years and, more recently, meetings of the TMDL Steering Committee led by the SSCRCD. 

General consensus of stakeholder concerns on the Sonoma Creek Sediment TMDL was reached with collaborative partners as well as members of the steering committee representing the North Bay Agricultural Alliance and Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance. The SSCRCD organized steering committee comments for maximum benefit through the public comment process and submitted three comment letters to the Regional Water Quality Control Board in November 2007, March 2008, and October 2008. SSCRCD and SEC provided public testimony on the proposed Sonoma TMDL Basin Plan Amendment to the Regional Board in April 2008. These written and oral comments have had a substantial effect on the TMDL development process and are expected to have beneficial impacts on the completed Action Plan. The Sonoma Valley Watershed Conservancy continues to actively participate in ongoing TMDL action plan policy development, implementation, and adaptive management efforts.

Click herefor more TMDL information from the State Water Resources Control Board.