By the end of June, the engineering firm writing West County’s sewer plan had billed $639,997.96 on a $640,000 contract. Nothing had been billed yet for the final report.
On Nov. 3, Sonoma County supervisors added $135,000 to that contract. The money comes out of the operations fund of the Russian River County Sanitation District. The district owns the sewage treatment plant on Neeley Road in Guerneville and the pipes and pumps that carry wastewater to it. Most of the fund’s money comes from the sewer charge on property tax bills.
By then, Sonoma Water says, the work was done. The agency’s project page says the study “kicked off in 2024 and was completed in October 2026.”
What the $135,000 buys
The firm is West Yost & Associates Inc. The district hired it on April 19, 2024, for $640,000. Its job was to study whether West County’s small sewer systems could share treatment and recycled-water systems. The goal, the staff report says, was to “provide more reliable and cost-effective services to local rate payers.” The study area runs from Occidental, Graton and Forestville to Monte Rio and Guerneville, plus smaller places like Hacienda, Hollydale, Villa Grande and Camp Meeker.
The new money brings the contract to $775,000. According to the staff report, it covers:
- a fifth option for combining the systems, studied with and without homes that aren’t on a sewer now;
- more work on what sewer service would cost those homes;
- more help with public outreach, including the Project Advancement Report, the second of the study’s two reports;
- a revised draft report that takes in public comments.
The two report deadlines in the amended agreement both fall before the vote. It lists the revised draft as due in March 2026 and the final feasibility report in May 2026. The district sent the final study to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board on May 28. The agreement’s term starts April 19, 2024, the date of the first contract.
Over budget by summer
The district laid out the spending in a July 30 progress report to the Water Board. Wine Country Gazette got the report from the board through a Public Records Act request.
Writing the draft study cost $93,403.96, against a $60,270 budget. That’s 155%. The final report had a $33,136 budget.
“Preparation of the Draft Feasibility Study required additional cost to carry additional alternatives further through the alternatives evaluation and ensure a thorough technical analysis and screening process,” the report says. “A contract amendment with West Yost, in an amount yet to be determined, will be executed to cover the cost to complete the final Feasibility Study, support continued public outreach and engagement efforts and preparation of Project Advancement Report.”
The staff report the supervisors approved calls the amendment “augmentation to work already in progress, not a new scope of services.” That’s why the job didn’t go back out to bid. West Yost won the original work in a competitive process on July 20, 2022.
The same staff report describes the final plan as unfinished. It says the draft plan is “currently being developed” and that the final report “will be submitted” to the Water Board in October 2026. Sonoma Water’s page says it was submitted in October. The final report is dated Oct. 28.
The item was on the consent calendar, the list of items the board passes in one vote. Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who represents the 5th District, made the motion. Supervisor James Gore seconded. It passed 5-0.
Why the sewer district is paying
The study is part of a penalty. Wastewater spilled from the district’s pipes in 2019, and the Water Board set a $1,033,546 penalty. The district paid $147,001 to a state cleanup account. The other $886,545 “will be suspended upon completion of the Project,” the staff report says.
“An amendment is necessary to fulfill the requirements of the administrative civil liability by providing additional time and resources to complete the technical feasibility study and to support continued public outreach and engagement efforts,” the staff report says.
What customers pay
The district’s sewer charge this year is $2,696 for each single-family home, $210 more than last year’s $2,486. The supervisors adopted it May 12 on a 5-0 vote. The district covers about 2,500 parcels.
Sonoma Water’s proposed budget for this year puts the operations fund at about $10.2 million. Sewer charges on tax bills bring in $7,944,800 of it. Another $2,155,000 is a transfer from Sonoma Water’s general fund.
What the study found
The study’s preferred plan keeps Guerneville’s plant serving its current customers, plus about 1,252 new homes’ worth of sewage. Forestville, Graton and Occidental would join at a new plant in Forestville, with room for about 1,899 more.
Many homes in the study area aren’t on a sewer. The Water Board estimates that up to 12,000 owners of septic and other on-site systems there must meet state limits on pathogens in the Russian River. Those are the homes the fifth option and the new cost estimates were about.
West Yost’s contract, now $775,000, runs through June 30, 2027.
Get the Gazette by email
The day’s stories from Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties, picked by the editor. Free.