Changes Proposed to the
For seven years, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has regulated discharges from irrigated agriculture to rivers and streams. This past month, the Regional Board released a proposed program and draft Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) that would expand regulated irrigated agricultural discharges to include both surface waters and ground waters from over 7 million acres of land.
The irrigated lands regulatory program was the result of changes in the California Water Code by the Legislature. In 2003, under the new rules, the Central Valley Water Board allowed farmers to combine resources by forming water quality coalitions. Through the coalitions, monitoring of waterways was initiated and regional management plans were developed to prevent pollution and improve water quality.
Under the proposal, agricultural water quality coalitions would continue in a lead role working on local solutions with growers to protect rivers and streams and, for the first time, to protect ground water basins used for drinking water. If a grower fails to protect water quality as part of a Coalition, the Water Board will issue an individual permit to that grower.
The Water Board is providing a 60-day comment period on the proposed program, draft program EIR, and economic analysis. Additional information, including the documents available for review and the dates and locations of upcoming public workshops, can be found at: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralvalley/.
What can you do to comment on these important changes? Participate in the public workshop that will be held at the SCE Ag TAC facility, 4175 S. Laspina in