Sonoma Creek gets EPA help

Nearly a million dollars of federal money is headed to Sonoma County to help improve water quality, improve watershed repair and reduce pesticide levels on creeks that feed into San Francisco Bay, supervisors announced this week.|

Nearly a million dollars of federal money is headed to Sonoma County to help improve water quality, improve watershed repair and reduce pesticide levels on creeks that feed into San Francisco Bay, supervisors announced this week.

“It is critical for the County to protect our water resources, and we are appreciative of this grant to help improve water quality in our local storm water systems,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Susan Gorin.

The $991,119 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is allocated to fund water quality improvements through drainage and storm water activities over the next four years. The source of the funding is the EPA’s San Francisco Water Quality Improvement Fund, to support and restore the San Francisco Bay.

Locally, the funding will be used to reduce sediment, pathogen and pesticide levels in the Sonoma Creek watershed, as well as to support similar community work in the nearby Petaluma River, tidal marshes, and San Francisco Bay.

The county’s Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) will administer the grant on behalf of its government partners Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works, and Sonoma County Regional Parks. Additional work with new partnerships with the Sonoma Ecology Center, Friends of the Petaluma River, and the City of Sonoma will also be incorporated in the effort.

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