Despite regulations, irrigators are still polluting ground and surface water

Below is a letter to Katherine Hart, Chair of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region, concerning the failure of the present Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program Framework.
One of the more than 100 signatories to the letter summarized it by saying:

You may remember that the causes of the crash of the ecosystem in the Delta were mainly 3 issues - water diversions (limited at times under the BiOps), toxins flowing into the system, and invasive species.  Not addressing this, and giving an additional 5 year waiver means that we will NOT be addressing one of the 3 causes of the Delta crash, which makes no sense to most of us. 

Many members of the Merced County public will remember Kate Hart, to whom the letter is addressed. Kate, an attorney representing Merced County at the time, was one of the masterminds behind railroading the Riverside Motorsports Park project through its local land-use hurdles. The project eventually wrecked on a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit. The new governor might consider replacing Katie with someone more friendly to the California environment than she is.
Badlands Journal editorial board
 
ENVIRONMENTAL, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, AND RECREATIONAL AND
COMMERCIAL FISHING COMMUNITY JOINT COMMENTS ON PROPOSED
IRRIGATED LANDS REGULATORY PROGRAM FRAMEWORK
CENTRAL VALLEY REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD
5 April 2011
Ms. Katherine Hart, Chair
Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region
11020 Sun Center Drive, #200
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
Re: Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program Framework

Dear Chairperson Hart and Board Members:
As representatives of environmental, recreational and commercial fishing and environmental justice communities in the Central Valley and throughout California, we write to encourage the Regional Board to embrace a regulatory framework that will meaningfully reduce the pollution caused by irrigated agriculture.
Runoff from irrigated agriculture is identified as the largest source of pollution to Central Valley waterways and the Delta. This pollution is documented to be one of the principal causes of the collapse of Central Valley fisheries. Inexplicably, irrigated agriculture remains exempt from requirements to monitor discharges and identify measures implemented to reduce or eliminate pollution that have long been applicable to every other segment of society, from municipalities to industry to mom-&-pop businesses.

The present approach to regulating irrigated agriculture has grievously failed. After two iterations of the present regulatory scheme, the Regional Board doesn’t know who is actually discharging, what pollutants are being discharged, the localized impacts to receiving waters and whether management measures (BMPs) have been implemented to reduce pollution or if implemented BMPs are effective. The Board simply cannot continue to cede its regulatory responsibilities to third-party industry advocacy groups if it hopes to succeed in reducing pollutant discharges from irrigated agriculture.

We urge the Regional Board to reject the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program Framework proposed by staff and, instead, embrace an approach that has a reasonable chance of success. Continuing to avoid direct regulation of pollution dischargers cannot reduce the pollution of ambient waters.

Restoration of degraded waters and protection of water quality requires the following changes:

1. Eliminate third-party coalitions and require instead that individual dischargers submit reports to the Regional Board identifying the location and content of discharges to both surface water and groundwater. The Regional Board has the duty to implement Porter- Cologne and to assure that farm dischargers do not pollute the Central Valley’s waters. Third-party coalitions add bureaucracy, obfuscate critical information the Regional Board needs to have, create permanent lobbies to weaken or undermine any true regulation of farm dischargers, and cannot be effectively enforced.

2. Monitor discharges to surface water and groundwater and the effectiveness of measures implemented to reduce pollution. The blunt fact is that water quality cannot be protected if you do not measure actual discharges to quantify pollution and evaluate the effectiveness of implemented management measures. If irrigated agriculture discharges pollution, they, like every other discharger in the state, should be required to measure what they are discharging and be able to show that their pollution is not harming any water of the State, whether the waters are flowing immediately adjacent to their fields or miles downstream.

3. Require all farm dischargers to prepare individual farm water quality management plans (FWQMPs) that identify measures implemented to reduce pollution. These plans must be made available to the Regional Board and the public. The proposed Framework fails to provide any scheme to track whether any management practices are being implemented or maintained, especially on a farm-specific basis. Nor does the Framework provide basic information about nutrients and pesticides being applied by specific farms for the Board to evaluate whether any installed measures are appropriate. The Regional Board must not warrant another decade of delay waiting for dischargers to save the Board from its own duty to act. The Board has to stop putting off this first step and require FWQMPs be prepared by every discharger within 6 months of the termination date of the current waiver.

4. Require compliance with water quality standards in the near-term, not some uncertain distant future. Staff proposes three years to allow third-party coalitions yet another opportunity to show that whatever they are doing is resulting in implementation of effective management practices and improved water quality. The framework allows three months for coalitions to tell their existing members of the new requirements, an entire year for existing members to reconfirm their membership, and two and a half years to attract a few new members. Staff then further proposes to delay compliance by each of the categories of dischargers by another five to ten years. Given twenty-plus years of no regulation followed by seven years of failed regulation, additional delays are unacceptable.

5. Demonstrate consistency with the state’s non-point source and antidegradation policies. An irrigated lands program relying upon third-party coalition groups has no likelihood of ever achieving any water quality objectives. After seven years of oversight by the Regional Board, staff cannot point to a single farm that has implemented Best Practical Treatments or Controls. Staff cannot describe or quantify the management practices, if any, that have been implemented throughout the Central Valley. The data collected during the last seven-year period shows water quality continuing to be degraded throughout large areas of the Central Valley. Furthermore, we are unaware of any consequences to a farmer who did absolutely nothing for the last seven years as long as they could say they were enrolled in a coalition. As for the coalitions, the only consequences of their missing deadlines or not achieving any measurable water quality benefits is receiving additional extensions of time or weakening of requirements. They have utterly failed to facilitate implementation of controls as is required by the Non Point Source Policy.

The only way farm dischargers will recognize any consequences of not complying with conditions of an irrigated lands program is for the Regional Board to remove the coalitions from the equation and regulate the dischargers directly. The abject failure of the existing program and coalitions to regulate agricultural runoff, the largest source of water pollution in California, demonstrates that the Regional Board should move the irrigated lands program into a regulatory system similar to the industrial and construction storm water programs. We urge the Board not to abdicate its responsibility to protect the quality of water discharged from irrigated lands.

Sincerely,

Bill Jennings
Executive Director
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

Jim Metroplos
Senior Advocate
Sierra Club California

Jonas Minton
Senior Water Policy Advisor
Planning and Conservation League

Gary Bobker
Program Director
The Bay Institute

Debbie Davis
Legislative Analyst
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water

Steve Evans
Conservation Director
Friends of the River

Linda Sheehan
Executive Director
California Coastkeeper Alliance

Connor Everts
Southern California Watershed Alliance

David Nesmith
Facilitator
Environmental Water Caucus

s/m ________________
Mark Rockwell
California Representative
Endangered Species Coalition

Jennifer Clary
Water Policy Analyst
Clean Water Action

Byron Leydecker
Chair
Friends of the Trinity River

Zeke Grader
Executive Director
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations

Michael Schweit
President
Southwest Council
Federation of Fly Fishers

Anne‐Marie Bakker
President
Northern California Council Federation of
Fly Fishers

Lloyd Carter
President, Board of Directors
California Save Our Streams Council

Carolee Krieger
Board President and Executive Director
California Water Impact Network

Pietro Parravano
President
Institute for Fisheries Resources
s/m ________________

Dan Bacher
Editor
Fish Sniffer Magazine

Nadananda
Executive Director
Friends of the Eel River

Joan Clayburgh
Executive Director
Sierra Nevada Alliance

Laurel Firestone
Co-Executive Director
Community Water Center

Martha Guzman
Legislative Analyst
California Rural Legal Assistance
Foundation

Elanor Starmer
Western Regional Director
Food & Water Watch

Dick Pool
President
Water4Fish

Alan Hawthorn
Executive Director
Friends of Butte Creek

Trevor Kennedy
Executive Director
Fishery Foundation

Mondy Lariz
Director
Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition

Todd Stiner
Executive Director
SPAWN

David Lipscomb
President
Diablo Valley Fly Fishers

Seymour R. Singer
President
Pasadena Casting Club

Roger Mammon
President
Lower Sherman Island Duck Club

Roger Thomas
President
Golden Gate Fishermen’s Associations

Steve Shimek
Program Director
Monterey Coastkeeper

E. J. Melzer
1st Vice President
Peninsula Fly Fishers

Dave Steindorf
California Stewardship Director
American Whitewater
s/m ________________

Mark Franko
Headman
Winnemem Wintu Tribe

Petey Brucker
River Program Coordinator
Klamath Forest Alliance

Rick A. Scannell
Vice Commodore
Sportsmen Yacht Club

Jason Rainey
Executive Director
South Yuba River Citizens League
s/m ________________
Garry W. Brown
Executive Director & Coastkeeper
Orange County Coastkeeper
s/m ________________
Caryn Mandelbaum
Freshwater Program Director
Environment Now
s/m ________________
Dave Wagner
Conservation Chair
San Joaquin Audubon
s/m ________________
Noah Greenwald
Endangered Species Program Director
Center For Biological Diversity
s/m ________________
Michael Lynes
Conservation Director
Golden Gate Audubon
s/m ________________
Alan Levine
Director
Coast Action Group
s/m ________________
Paul Towers
State Director
Pesticide Watch
s/m ________________
Tracy Brieger
Co-Director
Californians for Pesticide Reform
s/m ________________
Deb Self
Executive Director
San Francisco Baykeeper
s/m ________________
Don McEnhill
Executive Director
Russian Riverkeeper
s/m ________________
Pete Nichols
Program Director
Humboldt Baykeeper
s/m ________________
Fredic Evenson
Director
Ecological Rights Foundation
s/m ________________
Michael Warbuton
Executive Director
The Public Trust Alliance
s/m ________________
Robin Huffman
Advocacy Director
Butte Environmental Council
10
s/m ________________
Curtis Knight
Conservation Director
CalTrout
s/m ________________
Jeff Miller
Director
Alameda Creek Alliance
s/m ________________
Warren Truitt
President
Save the American River Association
s/m ________________
Kari Burr
Acting Director
Friends of the Lower Calaveras River
s/m ________________
Steve Johnson
President
Delta Fly Fishers
s/m ________________
Randy Repass
Chairman of the Board
West Marine
s/m ________________
James R. Tolonen
Conservation Chair
Santa Cruz Fly Fishermen
s/m ________________
Cindy Charles
Conservation Chair
Golden West Women Flyfishers
s/m ________________
Sue Young
President
Shasta Mayflies
s/m ________________
Lowell Ashbaugh
Conservation Chair
Fly Fishers of Davis
s/m ________________
Wade Goetz
President
Flycasters of San Jose
s/m ________________
Wayne Holloway
President
Gold Country Fly Fishers
s/m ________________
Lew Leichter
President
Santa Lucia Fly Fishers
s/m ________________
Rachael Hamilton
Project Manager
Inland Empire Waterkeeper
s/m ________________
William P. O’Kelly
President
Sierra Pacific Flyfishers
s/m ________________
James Cox
President
West Delta Chapter California Striped Bass
Association
s/m ________________
John Buckley
Executive Director
Central Sierra Environmental Resource
Center
s/m ________________
Sylvia Kothe
Chair
Concerned Citizens of Stockton
11
s/m ________________
Bruce Tokars
President
Salmon Water Now
s/m ________________
Victor Gonella
President
Golden Gate Salmon Association
s/m ________________
Larry Collins
President
San Francisco Crab Board Owners
Association
s/m ________________
Mike Hudson
President
Small Boat Commercial Salmon
Fishermen’s Association
s/m ________________
Mark Micoch
President
NorCal Guides Association
s/m ________________
Eric Wesselman
Executive Director
Tuolumne River Trust
s/m ________________
Rosemary Moon Atkinson
Chair
Campaign For Common Ground
s/m ________________
Frank Galusha
My Outdoor Buddy
s/m ________________
Angelo Pucci
G. Pucci & Sons Mfg. Brisbane
s/m ________________
Bob Ingles
Queen of Hearts Charters
Half Moon Bay
s/m ________________
Brian Cutty
Chubasco Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
Brian Guiles
Flying Fish Charters
Berkeley
s/m ________________
Chris Chan
Ankeny Street Sportfishing Charters
Half Moon Bay
s/m ________________
Chris Acecelo
Chris’ Fishing Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
Chris Duba
Silver Fox Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
David Ryan
Caroline Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
Dennis Baxter
New Captain Pete
Half Moon Bay
s/m ________________
Dan Wong
Sea Gull Charters
Emeryville
12
s/m ________________
Don Franklin
Soleman Sportfishing Charters
San Francisco
s/m ________________
Ed Gillia
New Easy River Charters
Berkeley
s/m ________________
Frank Rescino
Lovely Martha Charters
San Francisco
s/m ________________
Galen Onizuka
Johnson Hicks Marine
Sausalito
s/m ________________
George Catagnoia
Sandy Ann Charters
Bodego Bay
s/m ________________
Harry Necees
Checkmate Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
Harry Garabedian
New Seeker Charters
Emeryville
s/m ________________
Jack Chapman
Lovely Linda Sportfishing
Fair Oaks
s/m ________________
Jay Yokomozo
Huck Finn Charters
Emeryville
s/m ________________
Jim Robertson
Outer Limit
Sausalito
s/m ________________
Joe Gallia
El Dorado III Charters
Berkeley
s/m ________________
John Atkinson
New Ray Ann Charters
Sausalito
s/m ________________
John Kluzmier
Sir Randy Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
Ken Stagnaro
Stagnaro’s Charters
Santa Cruz
s/m ________________
Ken Ellie
Outdoor Pro Shop
Cotati
s/m ________________
Nick Lemons
Star of Monterey Charters
Monterey
s/m ________________
Nick Menigoz
Supper Fish Charters
Emeryville
s/m ________________
Phillip Benttivegna
Buchie B Charters
San Francisco
13
s/m ________________
Rick Powers
Bodega Bay Sportfishing
Bodega Bay
s/m ________________
Peggy Beckett
Huck Fin Sportfishing
Half Moon Bay
s/m ________________
Peter Bruno
Randy’s Fishing Trips
Monterey
s/m ________________
Robert Mazziti
Connie-O Charters
Half Moon Bay
s/m ________________
Russ Low
Low’s Fishing Adventures
Saint Helens
s/m ________________
Sherry Ingles
Half Moon Bay Sportfishing
Half Moon Bay
s/m ________________
Steve Talmadge
Flash Sportfishing Charter
San Francisco
s/m ________________
Todd Magaline
Blue Runner Charters
Sausalito