Russian River mouth: Sonoma Water seeks a five-year seal authorization, comments due November 16

By The Downspout · Posted Oct 17, 2026 · 4 min read

Sonoma Water has asked NOAA Fisheries for a five-year authorization (2027 to 2032) covering seals that may be disturbed when it digs open the sandbar at the Russian River mouth. NOAA has not decided. Anyone can send comments until November 16, 2026.

Where it is and what it does

The Russian River estuary is the last stretch of the river before the Pacific Ocean, at Jenner in Sonoma County. The application puts it about 60 miles northwest of San Francisco. It runs upstream about 6 to 7 miles, between Austin Creek and the community of Duncans Mills. The river mouth is at Goat Rock State Beach. See it on a map: Goat Rock State Beach, Jenner.

A sandbar can build across the river mouth at any time of year. Behind it the estuary becomes a lagoon, and water levels rise. The application says flooding may occur along the estuary. Sonoma Water has dug open the sandbar since 1995. Before that, local citizens and then the county did it. Since 2000 there have been an average of four artificial breaches a year. The application says most breaching events of any kind, natural, private or by Sonoma Water, from 2000 to 2025 fell between October and December.

A typical cut is about 100 feet long, 25 feet wide and 6 feet deep. It uses a bulldozer or excavator on the beach. Sonoma Water says it may breach when the water at the Jenner gauge rises above 7 feet, and that levels would not exceed a flood management target of 9 feet.

Harbor seals haul out on the beach at the river mouth all year. California sea lions and northern elephant seals show up now and then. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, work that may disturb them by accident needs an incidental take authorization from NOAA Fisheries.

What happened

On October 15, 2026, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) published a notice in the Federal Register. It says Sonoma County Water Agency, which the application calls Sonoma Water, asked for authorization to take small numbers of marine mammals incidental to its estuary management work. Here, "take" includes harassment that disturbs the animals' behavior. The request covers five years, 2027 to 2032.

The notice says NOAA received the application on July 1, 2026, and found it complete on October 7, 2026. NOAA issued similar regulations and a Letter of Authorization to Sonoma Water in 2022.

Sonoma Water asks for these limits each year:

3,498 Pacific harbor seals.
50 California sea lions.
50 northern elephant seals.

Over five years that is 17,490 harbor seal take events. The application says this is likely an overestimate, because the same seals would be counted many times in a year. The kind of take expected is Level B harassment, meaning disturbance, not injury.

The application lists these steps during pupping season, March 15 to June 30.

Delay a breach if a pup under one week old is on the beach where machines would work or on the path to it, until the pup leaves or the latest day that still prevents flooding.
Work no more than two days in a row unless flooding cannot be controlled.
Keep a seven-day no-work gap between events unless flooding is a threat to the low-lying community.

What it means for you

This request covers disturbance to seals. The application says the breaching itself follows the 2025 Biological Opinion from NOAA Fisheries.

If you own property near the estuary, the application says the purpose of breaching is to limit flooding of low-lying properties. If you care about wildlife or the river, you can send NOAA information about the seals or the estuary.

Our leaning is toward healthy creeks and habitat. The application states two facts about the habitat. It says breaching is meant to limit flooding and to enhance rearing habitat for young steelhead. It also says the 2008 Biological Opinion found that historical artificial breaching practices adversely affected the estuary's water quality and depths.

What happens next

Comments and information must reach NOAA by November 16, 2026. NOAA says it will consider them while developing proposed regulations, if appropriate. The notice gives no date for a decision.

Email: ITP.cockrell@noaa.gov.
Mail: Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Questions: Craig Cockrell, Office of Protected Resources, (301) 427-8401.

Email attachments must be Word, Excel or PDF files, and the whole message must be under 25 megabytes. NOAA says comments become part of the public record and may be posted online, including any name or address you include. Do not send confidential or sensitive information.

For background on how the river is managed, see how the Russian River works. For another open Sonoma Water request, see the minimum flow petition.

Where this came from

The NOAA Fisheries notice in the Federal Register dated October 15, 2026 (91 FR 65531), NOAA Fisheries' page for the action, and Sonoma Water's application to NOAA Fisheries for rulemaking and Letters of Authorization. Place details and numbers come from the application.

Sources

Checked 2026-10-17. Rules and programs change. If something here is out of date, the source above wins. Spot an error? See our corrections policy.