The Sonoma County Water Agency began inflating its rubber dam in the Russian River near Forestville on Thursday, kicking off a multi-day process critical to providing clean drinking water to more than 600,000 residents in Sonoma and Marin counties, officials announced.
Depending on river flow conditions, the dam can take four to 14 days to fully inflate, officials said.
Once inflated, the rubber dam forms a pool from which Sonoma Water draws water into four nearby infiltration ponds. These ponds help recharge the groundwater supply through natural filtration before the water is distributed to customers…