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Napa Suit Settled

A contentious legal dispute between Napa County and the Sierra Club has been resolved - at least for now. On April 25, the two sides reached an out of court settlement on a Club lawsuit alleging that the county was improperly approving new hillside vineyards and other developments (see Vintage Turf Wars, ESTUARY, April 2000).

In the settlement, the county agreed to require CEQA review of all projects on slopes greater than 5%. "We are happy the County agrees with us now," declared a Sierra Club press release. But the Club also held out the possibility of future lawsuits if the county fails to consider cumulative impacts of separate projects located on the same creek or stream. Some growers reportedly think the club is trying force a full blown environmental review of each and every proposed development, even those that would routinely be granted a "negative declaration" by officials.

The county's Watershed Task Force, which made up of vintners, officials, developers and environmentalists, is continuing to meet. Planning director Jeffrey Redding says the suit made its task more difficult by "changing the level of trust" that had gradually built up among its members. The group is working on recommendations for improving water quality in the Napa River, and had been hoping to complete its work by June 24. "That won't happen," Redding predicts.

In a related development, a two year, $225,000 study of water conditions in the river is getting underway. Funded by the S.F. Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Coastal Conservancy, phase 1 of the Sediment Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study will examine what factors may be limiting the populations of steelhead and other aquatic species in the Napa River and its tributaries. "We'll look at all kinds of things," says the Board's Mike Napolitano. In addition to studying sedimentation, investigators will try to determine what role stream architecture, scour from heavy winter flows, riparian cover and other conditions on have on habitat quality.

He hopes researchers can gain the trust of landowners in the watershed, because they will need access to waterways in order to do sampling. The agencies involved will work one on one to reduce property owners' suspicions that such studies inevitably lead to more stringent regulations, he says. TMDL studies do usually lead to watershed-based regulatory limits on inputs. But as Napolitano says, "We're not bringing back the salmon so we can move out people or grapes."

Contact: Napa Planning Dept. (707)253-4416

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