The proposed Alexander Valley Water District (AVWD) will provide an essential source of financing (through local taxes, assessments, or fees) for regional and local water supply and conservation projects, represent Alexander Valley agricultural, residential, and commercial users in inter-governmental and regional efforts to sustain and conserve water supply, and establish and administer a Middle Russian River Water Conservation and Sharing Program that builds off of the 2022 Water Sharing Program originally established under the State Water Board’s Drought Emergency Curtailment Regulation.

This new program will allow Alexander Valley landowners to reliably manage and ensure the sustainability of their common water supply, Russian River and its interconnected groundwater, which has become unreliable and at risk due to frequent droughts and a drastic reduction in the importation of Eel River water to the East Fork Russian River from the Potter Valley Project hydropower facilities.  The Middle Russian River Water Conservation and Sharing Program will cooperate with the similar program undertaken in the Upper Russian River within Mendocino County.  Specifically, the Water Conservation and Sharing Program will include the following elements:

·       Establish and administer program for the voluntary sharing of existing water supplies held by senior right holders with junior right holders during times of water shortage in cooperation with Sonoma Water and the State Water Resources Control Board;

·       Provide technical and legal assistance to Russian River water right holders within Alexander Valley to facilitate compliance with State Water Board water right curtailment orders;

·       Define and administer the Lake Mendocino water right “reservation” of 10,000 acre-feet of stored water for the benefit of water rights along the Russian River from its confluence with Dry Creek to the Mendocino County border in cooperation with Sonoma Water and the State Water Resources Control Board.