Regional Parks wants a water quality permit to repair small streams at 15 park sites

By The Downspout · Posted Oct 23, 2026 · 3 min read

Sonoma County Regional Parks is asking for state water quality approval to repair small hill streams at 15 park sites, mostly by hand. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is taking public comments from October 16 through November 5, 2026. The board has not decided.

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What this is

Sonoma County Regional Parks manages the county's regional parks and open space preserves. It wants to repair small streams at 15 of its park sites. Before the work can go ahead, a state water board has to approve how it will affect water quality.

Regional Parks calls this upper watershed restoration. It means fixing small streams and drainages high in the hills. These often dry out in summer. The notice says the work is mainly done by hand labor.

Regional Parks says crews lay branches and logs from nearby vegetation and forest work in the stream bed. This slows the water, holds soil in place and raises the streambed. Its stated goals include stopping erosion and soil loss, slowing fast water, refilling underground water supplies and creating better habitat.

Example from 2023: Regional Parks and the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center worked at Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park. They used cut branches and debris to fix four eroding gullies and about 100 feet of small streams that flow into Dutch Bill Creek. Regional Parks does not say whether that park is one of the 15 sites in this proposal.

What happened

The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board posted a public notice for the project. Below, we call it the Water Board. It is the state water quality agency for this region and has an office in Santa Rosa.

The notice is for a 401 certification. Some stream projects need a federal permit under the Clean Water Act. Before that, the state must confirm the work meets state water quality rules. That state sign-off is called a 401 certification. The Water Board posts a public notice on each pending one to gather comments from agencies and the public.

The notice says Regional Parks proposes the work at 15 park sites in Sonoma County. It lists the location only as multiple locations throughout the county. It does not name the parks. It lists the project's WDID, a state tracking number, as TBD, meaning to be determined.

The notice gives the reason for the work. It says the work is meant to repair soil loss caused by roads, culverts (pipes that carry a creek under a road) and mismanaged forests, past and present. It also says Regional Parks sees it as a way to improve habitat and wildfire resilience, and to support more biodiversity in the hills and in downstream waterways.

This is a proposal. The Water Board has not decided.

What it means for you

Deadline: comments are open from October 16 through November 5, 2026. The Water Board's program page says it considers public comments on water quality during the notice period.

The notice does not name the 15 parks, so a neighbor cannot tell from it whether a nearby park is included.

The notice does not say how to submit a comment. Its only contact is an email address that begins Jacob.Shannon@waterboards. The address as printed has a typo, with two dots before the final part. The Water Board's main office, listed on its program page, is at 5550 Skylane Blvd., Suite A, Santa Rosa, phone (707) 576-2220, email northcoast@waterboards.ca.gov.

Our view: without a list of the 15 sites, it is hard to give useful comments. For background, see our page on stopping erosion on a slope.

What happens next

After the comment period closes, the Water Board's Executive Officer, its top staff official, decides. The program page says the officer can sign and authorize the certification, or deny it if the application is incomplete or the project would violate water quality requirements. The page says the full process, counted from the application, usually takes 2 to 6 months. The notice gives no decision date and no work start date.

Where this came from

The Water Board's Water Quality Certification Public Notices page lists the project and the October 16 through November 5, 2026 comment period.

The Water Board's program page explains 401 certification and the review steps.

Sonoma County Regional Parks' Habitat Restoration page describes the method and the Monte Rio Redwoods example.

We read all three on October 23, 2026.

Sources

Checked 2026-10-23. Rules and programs change. If something here is out of date, the source above wins. Spot an error? See our corrections policy.