Windsor & Santa Rosa Councilman Commissioning Water Sales for Jackson Family Wines Through Local Agencies
Santa Rosa Councilman Stapp's spouse is the EVP, General Counsel at Jackson Family Wines, Windsor Councilman Hall's spouse is the VP of Sales & Operations Planning
Mr. Michael Wall was first elected to the Town of Windsor, CA Council in April 2022 with a current term of December 2022 - December 2026.
While campaigning in 2022, he shared the following messages to the Citizens for Windsor Facebook Page:
“…The Wall family began 15 years ago, when Michael Wall met Christine in the South Bay via the internet. After two years, the couple married, and have since started their family life in Windsor.
Christine earned her degree in finance from the University of Oregon, and now works as a wine and grape supply manager for Jackson Family Wines. Mike, meanwhile, earned his degree in history from University of California, San Diego, and now works for the healthcare improvement company Vizient…”
Ms. Christine Wall was employed with Jackson Family Wines as the Director of Wine & Grape Supply through April 2023. She was promoted to the VP of Sales & Operations Planning, her current position.
Mr. Wall reported zero financial interests for both he and his spouse on his statements of economic interest (SEI) for 2022 - 2024.
Mr. Wall was employed as the Associate Principal of Vizient, Inc. from January 2022 to July 2024 and Regional Vice President of Green Security from August 2024 to present. He failed to report these sources of income.
Mr. Wall’s assuming office SEI indicated that he served on the Windsor Water District Board, Windsor Redevelopment Successor Agency Board and Windsor Joint Powers Financing Authority Board for 2021-2022.
He served in the same capacity for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
On April 28, 2022, the City of Santa Rosa Council / Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Liaison Committee placed the following item on the agenda as new business:
PROPOSED WHEELING OF RECYCLED WATER IN GEYSERS RECYCLED WATER DELIVERY PIPELINE
Santa Rosa Water has been approached by the Town of Windsor and Jackson Family Wines about a project to utilize excess capacity in the Geysers Recycled Water Delivery Pipeline to convey recycled water from the Town of Windsor’s Water Reclamation Facility to a vineyard operated by Jackson Family Wines on Eastside Road in the Town of Windsor’s recycled water service area. When the Geyser’s pipeline was constructed in 2003, turnouts were included for potential future expansion of recycled water deliveries along the alignment. A turnout exists near the site proposed to be irrigated. Staff will present information on the proposed project, potential requirements and multi-jurisdictional agreements for the proposed project and delineate Santa Rosa Water’s role in a prospective project for the Committee’s consideration and direction.
On September 18, 2022, the City of Santa Rosa Council / Board of Public Utilities Liaison Committee received a presentation regarding the Proposed Wheeling of Town of Windsor’s Recycled Water in Geysers Project Pipeline.
Per the project proposal update:
Staff have met with Town of Windsor and identified key terms and conditions of a future agreement
Staff have met with Jackson Family Wines staff to discuss technical specifications of a potential tie-in at turn out
Proposed Terms and Conditions for Future Agreement:
Recycled water will be provided solely by Town of Windsor
“Wheeling” Agreement for utilizing excess pipeline capacity will be between Santa Rosa and Town of Windsor
Town of Windsor will have agreement with Jackson Family Wines for sale and delivery of recycled water
Agreement will be separate from and subordinate to existing 2008 agreement for conveying Town of Windsor’s water to Geysers
Any water conveyed under this agreement is interruptible, subordinate to operational needs of Santa Rosa and Town of Windsor’s geysers project delivery priority
Operations plan for deliveries must be approved by Santa Rosa to ensure accounting and priority is preserved
Santa Rosa has design approval and construction oversight for connection to the Geysers pipeline
Santa Rosa to be compensated for all costs related to pre-construction, design review, construction oversight and any operational/administrative costs
Windsor responsible for any and all permits, licenses and easements/ROW
Windsor responsible for O&M downstream of the turnout
Term - 10-year term
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Windsor will be lead agency
Santa Rosa will be responsible agency
Standard indemnities / defense
Risks passed to appropriate responsible party
Per Northern California Public Media, as of July 20, 2022, The Town of Windsor began their recycled water program:
Shannon Cotulla, Windsor’s Public Works Director, said the water is recycled from the city’s regular use.
"The potable water that is used in our businesses and residents in the community, their waste water comes to our water reclamation facility and it goes through a multi-step treatment process." Cotulla said. "And it is ultimately generated as effluent and recycled water, which is then available for reuse."
The program fill station is at Keiser Park on Windsor River Road.
Mike Cave, with Windsor’s operations department, said interested residents can easily register for the program.
"So it's a single page application, essentially." Cave said. "It would be the end user, the address and the approximate area that they would like to use the recycled water in. They can apply online right now in advance, and that's about it. We'll give them site supervisor training, the do's and don't s with their recycled water."
The only notable concern from the recycled water use is runoff, which Cave said is a non-issue.
"We don't foresee anyone with runoff." Cave said. "We don't have that situation going on now with folks that haven't directly plumbed to their home."
While he couldn’t provide an estimate for water savings from the program, Cotulla said Windsor residents have been meeting voluntary water reduction goals so far.
"Currently, the town of Windsor has declared a level two water shortage emergency, which means we're requiring the community to reduce their potable water consumption by 20%." Cotulla said. "And folks have been achieving that very effectively. And we're really pleased."
The recycled water program opens on July 20th, residents can find more information at townofwindsor.com.
On October 5, 2022, Windsor Town Council voted to approve a Professional Services Agreement with West Yost Associates for an Update to the 2013 Urban Recycled Water Facilities Planning Study.
Background: In 2013 the Town adopted an Urban Recycled Water Facilities Planning Study (2013 Study), drafted by West Yost Associates. This Study developed and evaluated priority recycled water projects for the Town. The 2013 Study included a market assessment of recycled water demand and an analysis of proposed recycled water project alternatives. The 2013 Study recommended expanding recycled water to the southernmost part of the Town’s potable distribution system, also referred to as the Airport service area, based on an evaluation using specific ranking criteria and overall cost-effectiveness. Updating the assumptions in the 2013 Study through Technical Memorandum is the first step toward pursuing expansion of the Town’s recycled water distribution system to the Airport service area.
Discussion: Pursuing the recommendations in the 2013 Study are consistent with recycled water priorities that were established by Town Council in the adoption of the 2001 Water Reclamation Master Plan:
Priority 1: Urban Reuse within the Town limits or sphere of influence
Priority 2: Agricultural reuse outside of Windsor using both the Town’s distribution system and the Geysers Pipeline
Priority 3: Reuse at the Geysers
Priority 4: Discharge to Mark West Creek.
Councilman Wall approved the Agreement by voting on the consent calendar agenda items.
On October 19, 2022, the Town of Windsor Council , Windsor Redevelopment Successor Agency and Windsor Water District received a staff presentation regarding the Windsor Water District Recycled Water Program Update & Agreement with the City of Santa Rosa.
Simultaneously, Santa Rosa Vice Mayor Mark Stapp was elected to City Council in 2022 representing District 2, which includes neighborhoods around Montgomery Village, Bennett Valley, and Taylor Mountain. Simultaneously, he serves on the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency Board.
The Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) is a public agency formed to sustainably manage groundwater in the Santa Rosa Plain groundwater basin.
As referenced from his statement of economic interest, his spouse, Ms. Vivian Stapp, is the EVP, General Counsel at Jackson Family Wines.
Jackson Family Wines owns the following Santa Rosa based wineries:
The Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) adopted a resolution updating the groundwater sustainability fees to fund local sustainable groundwater management.
The rate adopted for 2024-2025 is $43.65 per-acre-foot of groundwater pumped annually with actual rates determined by estimated extraction by user type. Rural residents, who use groundwater for one home, garden and landscaping are estimated to use 0.5 acre feet of groundwater annually, so their fee is $21.83 a year. Estimated fees can be viewed by parcel at the Groundwater User Information Data Exchange (GUIDE). Fees are collected via a parcel owner’s property tax bill.
The fee resolution was considered by the GSA Board and adopted on June 13, 2024.
The June 13 meeting agenda and meeting packet is posted on the meeting calendar on this website.
The Agency provided the following language to challenge incorrect groundwater fees:
The Groundwater Users Information Data Exchange (GUIDE) program was developed to provide the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) with current and refined information about groundwater use in the basin and to give you and other groundwater users an opportunity to view the available data about your parcel’s estimated groundwater use.
Your parcel’s estimated groundwater use is based on the best data available to the GSA. Through the GUIDE program, you can view, correct, or confirm the data the GSA has used for your property within the basin by completing the GUIDE survey. If your corrected data would alter the calculation for your groundwater sustainability fee, staff will assess and work with you to correct.
If you believe there was an issue in the calculation of your groundwater sustainability fee, you must first submit a GUIDE Survey and pay the groundwater sustainability fee. If staff review of your GUIDE survey determines that a fee adjustment is not warranted, you will have the chance to appeal this decision. An appeals form will be automatically sent to you after staff review of your GUIDE survey.
Within 30 days of receiving an appeal, the Administrator will meet with you to discuss the basis of the appeal. A determination shall be made no later than 15 days following the meeting. If the appeal is granted in whole or in part, you will receive a check for the refunded amount.
The Administrator’s decision can be disputed by filing a formal appeal to the GSA’s Board of Directors within 15 days of the delivery of the determination, as described in Ordinance 22-01.
Despite his family’s financial interest in the wine industry, Mr. Stapp voted in favor of approving the updated groundwater sustainability fee resolution.
Local resident and frequent GSA Meeting Attendee Michael Hilber brought the following information to my attention:
The policy for the Santa Rosa Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) is that commercial and agricultural wells will continue to be exempt from mandatory metering. This we are told is at odds with many GSA’s in other counties. Others often require metering for wells that pump 2.0 acre feet of water or more per year. So, this obviously benefits the wine industry, as neither wells used for vineyard irrigation or winery operations would be subject to metering which would get an accurate read on water use.
Instead of metering, they use a low-ball “estimate” for water use. The Santa Rosa GSA uses only 0.6 acre-feet per acre as the estimated vineyard irrigation instead of the 2.0 acre-feet per acre which is common according to the California Department of Water Resources. This number can vary, but 2.0 is much more reasonable than 0.6, and the 0.6 number adopted saves the wine industry a ton of money.
There are other policies like exemptions for so-called “dry farming” where claimants can be paying nothing. However, these can often be fraudulent in the sense that a grapevine’s roots can extend down to the water table, into the groundwater, and draw up groundwater for both growth and transpiration. Thus, a “dry-farmed” vineyard can claim exemption, yet still be impacting the groundwater basin simply by drawing the water even though not “irrigated.
Mr. Hilber shared the following email thread amongst himself and California Department of Water Resources Employee Gholam Shakouri:
Greetings,
I wonder if any of you might be willing to help me. I am looking to answer a question. If the DWR were to take over Groundwater management for a county in Northern California is there a table of water use that would be employed? I am specifically interested in vineyard water use. As in how many acre feet per acre would the estimated water use be? Or to put it another way, how many inches per year for irrigation? I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. It said this:
“Let’s say everything is equal and you have wine grapes growing exactly next to almonds. The almonds are going to use more water,” said Mallika Necco, an assistant adjunct professor in UC Davis’ Dept. of Land, Air and Water Resources and an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Generally, a grapevine might use 25-35 inches of water per year, while it might require 41-54 inches to irrigate almonds, according to Megan Bartlett, an assistant professor in UC Davis’ Dept. of Viticulture and Enology.
So this is saying 25 to 35 inches, or 2 feet-plus. Or 2 acre-feet per acre of vineyard of water use is how I read it. Is this accurate? Is there a table of water use for various crop types you can direct me to, one that the DWR would use if managing groundwater in an area with various crops including vineyards?
Thank you
--
Mike Hilber
Gholam sent the following response:
Hi Mike,
Based on your email, yes, you understood it correctly that vineyard uses 2 acre -feet per acre of water. Per your request attached Excel files are 2020 agricultural water use data by County for 20 crop categories by unit values & volume in California. Please note that the data were produced/developed by using Cal-Simetaw model from all 4 DWR’s Regional Offices for the California Water Plan -Updates 2023. FYI, we have developed Excel tool applications for accessing our historical Statewide ag water use data from 1998 -2015. Those Excel tool applications are available on the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) open data source. You can access them via this link Agricultural Land & Water Use Estimates (ca.gov)
For your information, DWR utilizes the Cal-SIMETAW model to determine crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and ET of applied water (ETaw) for agricultural crops by DAU/County within the state. ETaw is an estimate of the depth of applied irrigation water that contributes to the seasonal crop evapotranspiration or needed to produce a crop. If the water used for evapotranspiration comes from another source, e.g., rainfall, fog, water tables or seepage, or preseason stored soil moisture, it is not from applied water and, hence, is not part of the ETaw. Water diversions for irrigation of various crops are determined by dividing the ETaw by and estimated seasonal application efficiency, which depends on the irrigation system distribution uniformity (DU) and the application of an amount of water to increase the soil water content to near field capacity in the lower quarter (LQ).
The application computes reference evapotranspiration (ETo) from daily values of solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperature, dew point temperature (or maximum and minimum Relative Humidity), and wind speed using the standardized reference ET equation. The daily ETo and crop coefficients are used to estimate crop evapotranspiration (ETc), which is a product of ETo and a Kc.
Please see the attached paper for more information on the Cal-SIMETAW model. BTW, if you have specific questions about ground water management in Northern California, please contact Michelle Dooley or Monique Gaido in DWR’s Northern Region Office (Red Bluff). Both have been cc’d in this email.
I hope that helps out.
Take care/Gholam Shakouri
DWR
As Mr. Hilber expressed, the GSA approved the updated fee study as follows:
Additionally, the GSA is currently conducting a Stormwater Capture and Recharge Planning pilot study submitted by Bachand and Associates in collaboration with the Sonoma Resource Conservation District, GeoSystems Analysis, and Rambol. This document was included in the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency Advisory Committee Meeting Packet for May 13, 2024.
The Executive Summary is described as:
This Scope of Work provides a proposal for advancing stormwater capture and recharge pilot studies in both the Santa Rosa Plain and the Petaluma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. For the Santa Rosa Plain, the proposal covers implementation of an On-Farm Recharge pilot study over one-year of field work (Task 1), and the high-level planning for an upland pilot study in Crane Creek Regional Park (Task 3). For the Petaluma Valley, the proposal covers a regional appraisal on groundwater benefits with upland stormwater management and recharge on vineyards, rangelands, or other lands, as well as the planning implementation of a pilot (Task 2).
For each of these tasks, a schedule and budget are developed with all work under this proposal scheduled for completion by the end of March 2026.
For each task, optional subtasks are developed. These optional subtasks are provided to satisfy interest in these GSAs for what should be next if these efforts are continued and what is the scale and cost of the effort. These optional subtasks vary depending upon the current progress in each technology:
A second-year field study is described for Task 1 OFR Pilot in Santa Rosa Plain;
The implementation of the field study is described for Task 2 Upland Pilot in the Petaluma Valley; and
A range of next steps are laid out for the design and permitting of Crane Creek, Task 3, in Santa Rosa Plain.
For each Task, the optional subtask’s budget and schedule are developed to the degree possible. The budgets are provided as estimates of expected effort and should be considered preliminary. Crane Creek is the most uncertain effort so the Task 3 budget is provided as a range of costs. Final budgets for the optional tasks under each Task and effort can be further refined through the work on this Project.
The Landowner Engagement and Pilot Site Identification segment of the pilot study stated:
Potential pilot project OFR sites along Mark West in the Santa Rosa Plain GSA will be determined through a preliminary review of available public information, discussions with landowners who have supported these programs historically, and assessment of operations. This analysis will assume that successful OFR implementation requires broad implementation at scale for benefits to be significant. In the Santa Rosa Plain GSA, vineyards cover nearly 10,000 acres (approximately 12%) in 2016 (SRPGSA 2021).
Pilot project selection will target a site with a range of soil conditions and hydrology representative of the larger GSA along Mark West Creek in consideration of available vineyards, and proximity of GDEs (SRPGSP 2023, PVGSP 2023). Selection will include other important considerations such as proximity to a water source with sufficient volume for a pilot project, and potential effects on GDEs and fisheries, input from stakeholders (e.g., CDFW, National Marine Fisheries), and interest of partnering landowners. For the latter, this subtask will focus on working with landowners and landowner agencies previously interested and active. This potentially includes Jackson Family Wines, which has been active since funding the Saralee study (Bachand 2019, Bachand et al 2019) and tentatively agreed to participate in pilot studies (JFW 2023).
Our team will facilitate the necessary agreements to be made with partners to ensure necessary confidentiality. These agreements will be developed in collaboration with the participating landowner and their GSA. Landowner agreements developed for the Alexander Valley project could potentially be used as templates.
The Acknowledgements segment of the study stated:
We appreciate the support of the Jackson Family Wine organization and its partners in support of all aspects of the project including planning, site setup, irrigation management, tracking crop health, data collection, and maintaining continued enthusiasm and interest.
Are Windsor Councilman Wall and Santa Rosa Vice Mayor Stapp abusing their positions on local agencies to middleman business deals for Jackson Family Wines?
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32