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Home > The Leap > Sonoma County Storms Spill Wastewater into Russian River, Residents Warned to Stay Away
Podcast: The Leap
Episode:

Sonoma County Storms Spill Wastewater into Russian River, Residents Warned to Stay Away
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2026-01-08 00:52:16
Description:

Officials are advising the public to stay out of the Russian River on Wednesday after a storm that drenched Sonoma County overwhelmed a local wastewater treatment facility and sent millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the waterway.

Tuesday’s heavy rainfall caused the Russian River Treatment Plant in Guerneville to receive flows at a rate of around 4 million gallons per day — nearly six times its average dry-weather design of 710,000 gallons. With no additional storage available, the untreated wastewater traveled roughly a quarter-mile through a forested redwood grove before entering the mainstem of the river.

Sonoma Water spokesperson Stuart Tiffen told KQED on Wednesday morning that the spill is currently ongoing as the river continues to run high following the recent storm.

“As it starts to recede, with the making storm now a couple days behind us, we should start to see improved conditions at the plant also,” Tiffen said.

County officials have posted warning signs at river access points and coastal beaches from the Marin to Mendocino border. Residents and visitors are urged to avoid all contact with the water, which may contain bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that pose serious health risks.

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said turbidity levels in the river were too high to deploy the facility’s ultraviolet sanitization system, which is used to disinfect the water.

“In my opinion, this facility was built poorly in the first place and was never equipped to really handle the amount of rain that we can get,” Hopkins said. “We just simply do not have the capacity to handle these severe atmospheric storm events.”The exact volume of the spill remains unknown as crews continue to monitor the site. Tiffen noted that a final estimate will not be available until reports are submitted to state regulators, adding that the massive volume of stormwater currently in the river makes testing for pathogens more difficult.

“It’s complicated by the amount of storm water and how that would affect testing regardless of a spill,” Tiffen said. “Because it tends to muddy the water, so to speak.”

The Russian River County Sanitation District, which began operations in 1983, serves approximately 3,200 households. Hopkins noted that because the service area is small, the multimillion-dollar costs for necessary infrastructure upgrades would fall on a limited number of customers who already pay some of the highest sewer rates in the state.

“We’re really going to be looking to state and federal funds to try to come up with a long-term solution,” Hopkins said. “We need to use that sense of urgency to drive towards a bigger picture, longer-term solutions for the lower Russian River as a whole.”

The Sonoma County Department of Environmental Health is currently coordinating water quality testing to determine when it will be safe for the public to return to the river.

Officials have also asked residents within the sanitation district to reduce their wastewater use, such as flushing toilets and running water, to help limit further impacts on the system.
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