Russian River Watershed Protection Committee (RRWPC)
Russian River Watershed Protection Committee (RRWPC), a non-profit corporation, was founded in early 1980 as River Citizens Sewer Committee (RCSC) in response to problems with our local sewer district (Russian River Sanitation District) in the Guerneville Area. Five years after our inception, (1985), Santa Rosa allowed two major illegal discharges which exposed extreme weaknesses in their wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal systems. In response, the Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a Cease and Desist Order and demanded that Santa Rosa develop a long range plan that would guarantee no further accidents. For the last ten years, RRWPC has tracked that city's progress towards a long range plan that would protect the Russian River (our vision, not theirs). We have been burdened all that time (as have all environmentalists) with a political climate that prioritizes economics (theirs, not ours) over environmental values.
Two years ago, we elected to change our name to RRWPC to be reflective of the direction in which our group seemed to be going. While still focused on Santa Rosa wastewater issues, we had been lending support to those fighting the gravel mining issue and had been taking positions in water diversion issues (against more diversions, of course). Ironically, quite soon after changing our name, Santa Rosa hired an army of experts to gear up for the long range plan. RRWPC has subsequently been forced by the mountains of paper coming our way, to burrow narrowly into the issue of wastewater and water quality, and have had little time to spend on other problems. We trust this will not be a permanent condition, however.
RRWPC derives all of its financial support from our donor base. Through the years, we have developed a mailing list of over 1700 active supporters and 3500 less active ones. We put out about four mailers a year and we keep people informed of major activities on this issue by local and state governmental agencies. We have one major fundraiser each year which is a crafts faire in November in Santa Rosa (see ad in this newsletter). If you want to be on our mailing list, please call (707) 869-0410 and leave your number or mail your name and address to RRWPC, P.O. Box 501, Guerneville, CA 95446.
Brenda Adelman has been chair of RRWPC since its inception. She is also a member of the State Parks Citizens Advisory Committee, the Sonoma County Conservation Council, the Russian River Alliance, Santa Rosa's Technical Review Group, Russian River Enhancement and Access Technical Advisory Committee, Sierra Club Water Committee and the Regional Board's Russian River Water Quality Monitoring Committee. She was former Chapter Chair for Sierra Club's Redwood Chapter. She received COAAST Environmentalist of the Year Award in 1988 and the Russian River Chamber of Commerce Civic Involvement Award for 1990. She resides in Guerneville.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
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