Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed Reconciliation Project

Annoucements

The North Coast Water Board is developing an Action Plan to address impairments that contribute to biostimulatory conditions across the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed. A Notice of Public Meeting and Public Comment for CEQA Scoping for the Project is available below.  The Notice of Public Meeting includes information on how to join the public meetings, which will include a staff presentation, and on how to provide comments. The public is invited to review the Draft CEQA Environmental Checklist and will be given 45 days to provide written comments to the North Coast Water Board. 

Background

The Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed is the largest freshwater wetland complex on the northern California coast and was designated as a Wetland of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention in 2010. The Laguna provides water to local residents and a thriving agricultural industry and is the largest tributary to the Russian River. It also provides habitat to diverse species of plants and animals, including several federally and/or state listed as endangered or threatened.

Surface waters in the Laguna de Santa Rosa and its tributaries (including Windsor Creek, Mark West Creek, Santa Rosa Creek, Blucher Creek, and Copeland Creek) have been identified as impaired due to water quality exceedances of one or more pollutants and listed on the Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 303(d) list of impaired waters since 1990. Primary pollutants include sediment and nutrients which, alongside increased stream temperatures and other hydrological factors, contribute to nuisance biostimulatory conditions. This in turn reduces dissolved oxygen and creates conditions that impair aquatic life beneficial uses. The North Coast Water Board is developing an Action Plan to address impairments that collectively contribute to biostimulatory conditions across the Laguna watershed. Due to the diverse demands on the Laguna and the widespread nature of pollutant sources, developing and implementing the Action Plan will require a multi-benefit approach that leverages strong coordination with regional partners including public agencies, landowners, Tribes, environmental and community nonprofits, researchers, and other interested parties and community members.

More information about the CWA Section 303(d) List of Impaired Waters for the Laguna and the rest of the North Coast Region is available at the North Coast Integrated Report web page and at the California Surface Water Quality Assessment Program webpage, which includes an interactive Integrated Report Map. The interactive map displays the listing status for individual water body segments as well as relevant political, environmental, and socio-economic data layers.

Overview

The Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed supports a wide variety of recreational, industrial, and municipal uses, while also providing habitat to support rich biological communities including steelhead and coho salmon populations, the California tiger salamander, and vegetation endemic to the Laguna’s unique vernal pools and wetlands. However, extensive hydrological modification – including loss of floodplain habitat and stream rerouting and channelization – alongside intensive urbanization and agricultural land conversion has resulted in a vastly altered watershed that, relative to pre-development conditions, has simultaneously reduced the capacity of the system to assimilate pollutants and increased loading of sediment, nutrients, temperature, and other pollutants. Contemporary sediment and nutrient loads are several orders of magnitude above natural background conditions, and loss of riparian shading has contributed to increased stream temperatures throughout the watershed. Low dissolved oxygen concentrations, and presence of bacteria and metals (manganese, aluminum, and mercury) also contribute to degraded water quality in the Laguna watershed. This has resulted in widespread and long-term impairment of Laguna surface waters for several human health and aquatic life beneficial uses, as well as the proliferation of invasive aquatic species and nuisance biostimulatory conditions.

Under CWA Section 303(d), the North Coast Water Board is required to establish Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for pollutants identified as causing impairment of waters on the 303(d) List. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2022­-2032 Vision for the CWA Section 303(d) Program (EPA Vision) recognizes the use of implementation plans in addition to, or in lieu of, TMDLs where alternatives may be more immediately beneficial or practicable for restoring water quality. Consistent with the EPA Vision, the North Coast Water Board is developing an Action Plan to address 303(d) impairments in the Laguna watershed that may include TMDLs or an advance restoration strategy. Ultimately, the Action Plan will aim to reconcile water quality conditions with the Laguna’s contemporary hydrology and current and future land uses.

The Action Plan will specifically address pollutants associated with biostimulatory conditions: sedimentation/siltation, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. A TMDL for 303(d) listings caused by exceedances of dissolved metals is not under development for the Laguna watershed at this time. 303(d) listings in the Laguna de Santa Rosa and Santa Rosa Creek caused by indicator bacteria are being addressed as part of the larger Russian River Pathogen TMDL project. Please refer to the  Action Plan for Pathogens in the Russian River Watershed page for more information.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed Reconciliation Project, of which the Action Plan will be a key outcome, will leverage broad coalitions of partners to restore and protect habitats and ecosystem services. The term “reconciliation” is used because some portions of the Laguna watershed have been irreversibly altered and will require engineered measures (e.g., channel reconfiguration; high flow detention basins, sediment retention basins, trapping and removal) to safeguard and support remaining ecosystem functions. The Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed Reconciliation Project and Action Plan will be designed to align with the existing Laguna de Santa Rosa Master Restoration Plan (San Francisco Estuary Institute 2023), which was collaboratively designed to address mainstem Laguna de Santa Rosa restoration opportunities. Implementation of the Action Plan will consider both voluntary restoration efforts and potential regulatory actions related to existing and future permits and land uses, including point-source discharges, CWA section 401 certifications, urban stormwater management, hillslope stability and hydrology, roads and trails, and dairy and vineyard operations. Information and updates on Implementation and Partnerships will be detailed in the sections below as available.

The map below shows the 254 square-mile Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed. The watershed is situated in Sonoma County and borders Napa County along the Mayacamas Mountains to the east (map on left). The 22-mile long mainstem Laguna de Santa Rosa River wetland complex drains the Santa Rosa Plain from its headwaters near Cotati to the southeast and is the largest tributary to the Russian River (map on right). Major tributaries to the Laguna de Santa Rosa include, from north to south, Windsor Creek, Mark West Creek, Santa Rosa Creek, Blucher Creek, and Copeland Creek. The watershed provides habitat for threatened and endangered species including chinook and coho salmon, the California red-legged frog, and the California tiger salamander, as well as flowering plants endemic to the plain’s unique vernal pools. The watershed is also home to large urban and suburban areas and a rich agricultural community.

Public Notices for public meetings, workshops, and comment periods and related materials will be posted here as they become available.

North Coast Water Board Meetings

  • February 4, 2021 Board Meeting Item #5: Updates on the Technical Development of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Total Maximum Daily Loads and the Restoration Vision for the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
    • Executive Officer’s Report
    • Presentation slides delivered by Dr. Kelsey Cody (North Coast Water Board), Dr. Jonathan Butcher (Tetra Tech, Inc.) and Dr. Neil Lassettre (Sonoma County Water Agency) are available on request.

Under construction.

A framework for implementing the Laguna Reconciliation Project is in the early stages of development. Implementation of the Action Plan will be the product of considerable collaboration and input from implementation partners and other interested parties across the watershed. Effective water quality monitoring will be essential to inform and implement the Action Plan and to adaptively manage restoration activities. The existing Russian River Regional Monitoring Program (R3MP) will be a key monitoring partner during the development and implementation stages of the Action Plan and broader Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed Reconciliation Project.  

The North Coast Water Board previously adopted Regional Board Resolution No. R1-2008-0061 and Resolution No. R1-2018-0025, which established the Nutrient Offset Program (NOP) and Water Quality Trading Framework (WQT), respectively. These programs were designed to reduce phosphorus loading into the Laguna and remove legacy phosphorus by creating a market for credits generated through watershed restoration projects and other nutrient reduction actions. Currently, WQT is implemented directly through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. More information is available at the  WQT Framework for the Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed web page.

A TMDL for high levels of ammonia and low dissolved oxygen concentrations was previously approved by the U.S. EPA in 1995 as the Waste Reduction Strategy for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. The Waste Reduction Strategy focused on the reduction of nitrogen loading from point and non-point sources.

Under construction.

Efforts are underway to develop strong partnerships with diverse parties, including: water agencies; land management agencies; Tribes; landowners; residents; special interest groups; city, county, state and Federal government agencies; academic and research organizations; non-governmental organizations; and, other interested parties. 

Technical Reports & Memoranda

Supporting Literature

  • Restoration Plan for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Dusterhoff, SD; Whipple, A; Baumgarten, SA; Robinson, A; Shaw, S; Stark, K; Askevold, RA. 2023. Restoration Plan for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. SFEI Contribution No. 1123. San Francisco Estuary Institute: Richmond, CA.
  • Restoration Vision for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Richey, A; Dusterhoff, SD; Baumgarten, SA; Clark, E; Benjamin, M; Shaw, S; Askevold, RA; McKnight, K. 2020. Restoration Vision for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. SFEI Contribution No. 983. SFEI: Richmond, CA.
  • The Altered Laguna: A Conceptual Model for Watershed Stewardship. A report by Christina Sloop, Joseph Honton, Clayton Creager, Limin Chen, Elizabeth Andrews, and Setenay Bozkurt from the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, Tetra Tech, Inc., and Philip Williams & Associates, Ltd. (2007)

Technical Reports
The North Coast Water Board and U.S. EPA contracted Tetra Tech to develop a sediment and nutrient budget for the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed in 2015. These documents are provided below, but have since been updated. Updated reports are available above, in the Technical Documents section.

Additional Technical Reports

Technical Memoranda
North Coast Water Board staff technical memoranda document and describe analyses and assessments to support the development of the TMDL Action Plans. These memoranda and their findings and conclusions are subject to change as staff continue to develop the TMDLs.

Monitoring Plans & Reports
Regional Water Board staff completed field monitoring to support the development of the 2015 Tetra Tech source analyses. The following documents detail the monitoring plan, Quality Assurance Project Plan, and results.

Status Updates
Regional Water Board staff provides status updates to the Regional Water Board and the public on an as-needed basis. Updates between July 2010 and August 2015 are provided below.

Contact Us

Stay Informed

To receive notices and the timeliest information on the Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed Reconciliation Project via e-mail, please subscribe to our Basin Planning mailing list here: GovDelivery Sign-up

Resources

TMDL Projects

  (Page last updated 10/30/25)

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