FoGR: Woolsey Protests Gualala River Water Exportation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) announced today that she has sent a letter to the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Division of Water Rights to protest an application by an internationally funded firm to withdraw river from the Gualala River.

Rep. Woolsey’s November 7th letter to the SWRCB opposes the application by Alaska Water Exports to pipe 8,700 acre feet annually out of the Gualala River into polyfiber bags offshore to be towed to San Diego for municipal water use.

“I am against the recent application of Alaska Water Exports to withdraw water from the river to transport and sell in this country or abroad,” said Rep. Woolsey. “I believe that if water rights are granted to Alaska Water Exports there will be serious and permanent degradation of the river and its estuary, and harm to the residents of the area who depend on the Gualala River for drinking water, agricultural irrigation, recreation and their livelihoods in a tourist and resource based economy.”

Rep. Woolsey is protesting the Alaska Water Exports application to appropriate water from the Gualala River because it could be in violation of federal law by breaking the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammals Act and the Clean Water Act.

She states in the letter that piping water from the river could trap or maim endangered Coho salmon and steelhead, and that changes in salinity and temperature resulting from the project could have deleterious effects on the migration of Coho salmon and the survival rate for seal and sea lion pups.

Changing the flow rate of the Gualala River would also affect the health of the Gualala River. “According to a recent report by the North Coast Watershed Assessment Program… The river needs large winter flows to flush out sediments,” said Rep. Woolsey. “Currently these winter flows are not always adequate to do the job. Large water withdrawals will reduce this natural flushing, increasing sediment build-up in the estuary.”