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b"June 16, 2022 \\u2014 The Ukiah City Council took two actions in response to drought and climate change at its Wednesday night meeting, when they unanimously approved a climate emergency resolution and agreed to participate in a voluntary water sharing agreement with other water users on the Russian River.\\nThe city has a sturdy groundwater basin and holds durable senior pre-1914 water rights to flows in the East Branch of the river, which is also the destination for water that\\u2019s diverted through the Potter Valley hydropower project. \\nThe voluntary program affects water users in the upper Russian north of the Dry Creek confluence. The agreement was written by Phil Williams, Ukiah\\u2019s special water counsel, and was approved by the State Water Board on June 7. The program is intended to provide water users with a framework within which senior rights holders can reduce their water use by a certain percentage so that junior rights holders are not left high and dry. Participants, who have until June 20 to sign up, will commit to reducing their surface water diversions using a monthly average based on their water use during the years 2017-2019. They\\u2019ll continue to keep track of how much water they use, and agree not to challenge one another\\u2019s water rights. The maximum water use reduction for pre-1914 water rights holders like the City of Ukiah will be 20%. The program will end when the Deputy Director of the Division of Water Rights determines that there has been enough rain to alleviate water supply shortage; when the drought emergency proclamation is withdrawn; or if the program starts having an adverse effect on non-participants\\u2019 water availability.\\nSean White, the city\\u2019s director of water and sewer, told the City Council that the current legal structure for water rights makes it hard to distribute the diminishing resource in a way that benefits the community at large. He said the water-sharing agreement was ironed out after last year\\u2019s bruising negotiations with the state over the program to haul water from Ukiah to Fort Bragg.\\n\\u201cUnder the current water rights system, the way it works is juniors in a really dire situation like last year essentially get nothing, and if you\\u2019re senior enough, you can get everything\\u2026I don\\u2019t think myself or Phil have any real opposition to existing California water rights, there are a lot of things that are based on that, and this doesn\\u2019t undo any of that. What's In front of you, this creates an alternative path. If you don\\u2019t want to go down that road, and you want to just do something that is voluntary, that you feel is more equitable, then really, by being equitable, it\\u2019s kind of better for your overall community, than having people who have nothing and people who have nothing, then that is sort of the overall premise of the agreement that\\u2019s in front of you.\\u201d\\nThe program depends on how much water makes it into the East Branch of the Russian River, through natural means or by way of the diversion from the Potter Valley Project, which is owned by PG&E. PG&E has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a variance, a request to reduce the amount of water coming out of Lake Pillsbury to five cubic feet per second. Water managers were expecting five times that much, plus a five cfs buffer. Williams said he expects a decision from the Commission in a few weeks, and that approval of the variance request would probably put a hold on the agreement.\\n\\u201cIf PG&E is only hitting a 5 cfs release, this program likely will not become viable, meaning it won\\u2019t become operative until September one,\\u201d the start of the next water year, he said. \\u201cIf there\\u2019s more water than that, this program will become operative and viable before then. But what happens in this program is we essentially create a separate block of water. Participating water right holders would agree to not divert a certain amount of water, thereby keeping that water in the stream that would be available to other participants further downstream\\u2026we won\\u2019t be inundated with requests for this water because it\\u2019s more passive than that. We would be creating a block of water, along with other participants, that makes that water available.\\u201d\\nThe program is a little like an insurance pool, in that it only works if enough healthy people, or, in this case, senior water rights holders, sign up for it. White said that\\u2019s why he thought it was important for the city to sign on. \\n\\u201cThere\\u2019s a certain level of critical mass that needs to happen for this program to be viable,\\u201d he explained. \\u201cOne of those is people signing up, in particular senior right holders, because they are the people who will have a resource that can be reallocated to juniors. So if only juniors sign up, then it really won\\u2019t work. So I think that\\u2019s one of the reasons that it\\u2019s important that the City agrees to participate. But there also does need to be enough resources to share, period. If the year goes as it was intended, I think it will be great for this year. The PG&E variance is a bit of a wild card in this whole situation. And even if it ends up sort of negating this program for a while, having this in place and having us be a signatory, still creates an alternative path for the next drought, which we know is probably not that far away.\\u201d\\n\\nThe climate emergency resolution, crafted by Climate Action Mendocino, cited drought among the many reasons for the city to endorse the declaration of a climate emergency. It builds on the city\\u2019s current environmentally conscious efforts like recycling water and cooling the streets by planting more trees. It also calls for rigorous policy practices, like updating the zoning ordinance and conducting energy and waste audits on city buildings. Helen Sizemore summed up the gist of the 16 letters and all the public comment on the item. \\u201cWe all voted for you, and this is what we want,\\u201d she said simply. \\nMayor Jim Brown did so, along with his colleagues, and praised the group for its work on the resolution. \\u201cYou came prepared, with the science,\\u201d he said. \\u201cI met with Ms. Mitro (of Climate Action Mendocino) personally. She provided me information that I found very rewarding. So I really want to thank the Climate Action Group on their preparedness.\\u201d"