Many farmers worry about going under due to drought and other climate-related catastrophes. But some West Marin ranchers are worried about going under water—literally.
In the aftermath of recent droughts, Marin Water is seeking to boost its storage by as much as 25 percent. Among the three remaining options on the table are two that would inundate ranches in West Marin. One option involves building a new reservoir in Nicasio, across the road from the existing one. The other would triple the size of Soulajule Reservoir—inundating 530 acres of Hicks Valley ranchland in the process.
At half the estimated cost of the other two options, a Soulajule expansion seems most likely.
“Our home, our barn, and the road to our property would all be underwater,” said Barbara Reedy, a member of the Dolcini family that has owned an 1,100-acre ranch in Hicks Valley for five generations. “Water would cover all our useful agricultural land, or 90 percent of it. All that would be left are some hills sticking out of the water.”
The three-mile ride from Hicks Valley Road to the Dolcini place winds through a spectacular vista of rolling hills, oak groves and pastures. Theirs is a hidden valley within a valley that can’t be seen from the road. They call it Spring Valley Ranch.
On a recent day, Ms. Reedy drove in past a great blue heron, a flock of geese and some pelicans. A golden eagle nested nearby.
“This is one of the few places on earth where you can stop walking and hear layers of sound,” she said. “You can hear the bugs. On top of that, you hear the birds. You can hear the wind. You don’t hear airplanes. You don’t hear cars. You hear the land as it is. It’s so precious, and so rare.”
Last spring, a consulting firm hired by Marin Water, Terra Engineering, evaluated 11 different paths to expanding water storage for the district, and pared those down to three options. In addition to expanding Nicasio and Soulajule storage, the district is considering expanding Kent Lake, which would not flood privately owned land.
The consultants said expanding Soulajule would cost $291 million. In contrast, building a new reservoir in Nicasio would cost $606 million, and expanding the Kent Lake would cost $613 million, they said.
Another option the consultants considered and rejected was building a new reservoir on land straddling Samuel P. Taylor State Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area at Devil’s Gulch Creek, a tributary of Lagunitas Creek. Terra Engineering concluded that the land acquisition costs would be prohibitive.
The firm will study the pros and cons of the three remaining sites in more detail this summer and recommend one as the most appropriate at the district’s September meeting.
Ranchers are not on board.
Bill Barboni grazes some of his cattle on the Dolcini ranch and owns more than 2,000 acres next door, some of which would also be inundated if the Soulajule is expanded. His brother, his sister, his niece and the families of two longtime farmhands live in houses on the site.
“It would wipe out my entire home ranch,” said Mr. Barboni, a fourth-generation rancher who runs one of the largest cow-calf operations in Marin and Sonoma Counties. “My hay barn and all our infrastructure are here. If my home place becomes inoperable, I would probably have to retire and call it quits.”
There are also environmental factors to consider, he added. “There are a lot of riparian areas and biological diversity that is going to be destroyed by this dam,” he said.
Marin Water serves nearly 200,000 residents in central and southern Marin, including the San Geronimo Valley. Seventy-five percent of its water supply comes from its seven reservoirs, which hold a combined 80,000 acre-feet of water. (An acre-foot is about 326,999 gallons of water.)
Terra Engineering was tasked with evaluating what it would cost to add another 20,000 acre-feet to the system. Its report, released this spring, found that a Soulajule Reservoir expansion would involve fewer construction obstacles than the other sites, especially Kent Lake. There, the presence of northern spotted owls would restrict the construction window to just three months a year, the report said.
Increasing reservoir storage capacity is only one prong of Marin Water’s water supply roadmap, which board directors adopted last year. The roadmap calls for adding 12,000 to 20,000 acre-feet of water supply by 2035.
When Marin Water’s reservoirs are full, they hold enough water to supply customers for two years. The roadmap calls for developing a large enough water supply to get through a four-year drought.
Besides expanding reservoir storage, the roadmap calls for increasing conservation measures, desalination and building pipelines to convey more water from Sonoma County, where the banks of the Russian River often overflow during the rainy season. Much of the excess water goes uncaptured.
Ranchers in Hicks Valley believe a Soulajule expansion is all but certain to be part of the district’s final plan.
“They keep telling us that this is preliminary, and they’re just doing their due diligence,” Mr. Barboni said. “But a Soulajule expansion keeps showing up on our radar as being foremost on their mind.”
Paul Sellier, Marin Water’s water resources manager, said the other two options remain on the table and will be given close consideration.
“We’re taking a deeper look at those three to try to understand and refine and develop them a bit more,” he said.
That investigation will involve taking a closer look at the storage potentials of each project and their impacts on the environment, Native resources and ranches.
“The final volume for any reservoir raise is still somewhat open,” Mr. Sellier said. “We will be looking for ways to minimize the impacts.”
The Hicks Valley neighbors point out that Terra Engineering’s estimated cost of the Soulajule expansion only includes construction and engineering costs—not the cost of acquiring their land.
The Dolcini ranch alone was recently appraised at over $10 million, according to Carol Dolcini, Ms. Reedy’s sister. Ms. Dolcini said that northern spotted owls have also been documented on her property, which could limit the schedule of construction there, and drive up its costs.
While some winter water from Sonoma County is already piped into Marin Water’s system, the roadmap calls for conveying additional Sonoma water to Soulajule through a pipeline that has yet to be built. Its cost was not included in Terra Engineering’s estimated price tag.
But some directors at Marin Water have questioned whether any reservoir expansion is feasible. When Terra Engineering staff presented their financial estimates at an April 30 board meeting, board director Larry Russell dismissed all the proposals as “pie in the sky.”
“Even at $300 million, you are exceeding our bonding capacity by multiples,” he said. “I just don’t see the reason to go forward.”
But board president Ranjiv Khush said it would be “very irresponsible” to drop the study.
“I feel very strongly that we should continue this analysis until we have all of the data on the table—including impacts on community members, including price tags, including the possibilities of external funding, so that we can make decisions that are defensible, not emotional,” he said.
Several directors have visited with the Soulajule ranchers, who have been lobbying against the project for nearly two years. Supervisor Dennis Rodoni recently met with Ms. Reedy and her neighbors to hear their concerns. He did not take a firm stance.
In an email to the Light this week, Mr. Rodoni said he supported the district investigating all options.
“Marin County and my office are supportive of Marin Water moving forward with their studies,” he said. “We do want to understand what the impacts to agriculture, family farms, and grazing lands are, if a project becomes feasible.”
Mr. Barboni said he did not expect politicians or water district board members to be swayed by emotional appeals.
“They’re looking for the most cost-effective way to store water,” he said. “I don’t think the heritage of agriculture in West Marin or economic impact on ranchers is going to influence their decision on flooding our valley.”
When the Soulajule damn was built 45 years ago, the Dolcinis and the Barbonis each lost roughly 300 acres of ranchland.
“It’s very jarring to have it come up again,” Ms. Reedy said. “If you’ve grown up in a place, it is a part of you. It’s in your DNA. Losing it is like cutting your skin.”
The Marin Agricultural Land Trust has purchased easements from both the Barboni and the Dolcini families to guarantee that their land remains in agricultural production. Ms. Dolcini said her family is committed to fulfilling that pledge.
“We feel a deep sense of connection and responsibility for stewardship of this place—for keeping it open, keeping it free, keeping it clean and passing it on to the next generation, who have had those values imbued in them from the beginning,” she said.