The State - News from April 3, 1988

Water quality officials have ordered the City of Santa Rosa to investigate whether its sewage is creating a mysterious green glow in the Russian River. The North Bay water quality board suspects that the green glow is caused by an early buildup of river algae, probably caused by a combination of waste water and warm, dry weather. Santa Rosa started discharging higher than normal concentrations of treated waste water into the river March 4 but has since voluntarily reduced the amount and planned to stop completely within two weeks because of drought conditions. If the city’s discharge is found to be causing the early algae growth, it would be ordered to halt all waste water releases into the river, Ben Kor, executive director of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, said.