Five approaches offered for maintaining Central Valley water quality

By WES SANDER
Capital Press

Agricultural water users in California are pulling for regional control of a process to maintain the quality of surface and ground water in the Central Valley.

The long-term Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program will replace the current conditional waivers that allow irrigators to discharge water from farms.

Perry Klassen, executive director of the East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition, says his group recently recorded dramatic drops in chemical discharges on three problem waterways.

It was a result of Klassen and staff contacting local farmers and helping them rework irrigation techniques to keep discharge pollutants below the state limits, Klassen said.

He said the results show evidence that the coalitions can spur landowners to handle water-quality compliance. If the compliance were handled by the board, landowners would face the costly compliance-permitting process individually.

The regional water-quality coalitions handle compliance collectively on behalf of members, reducing expenses.

"The argument we're trying to make is that the coalition approach can work to solve water-quality problems," Klassen said.

The effort to create long-term rules started in 2003, when a new state law ended the agricultural waivers that had for years eased restrictions on the quality of water leaving fields.

The waivers virtually exempted agriculture from fulfilling the discharge-quality requirements laid out by the 1969 Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act.

When the ag waivers expired in 2003, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board -- one of nine water-quality regions established by Porter-Cologne -- extended temporary waivers to agriculture, accompanied by new conditions on wastewater discharge.

The board also oversaw creation of several water-quality coalitions around the Central Valley. Supported by water users, the coalitions reduce landowners' expenses by handling discharge permitting on a regional basis.

In 2006, the conditional waivers were extended another three years, with a restated commitment by the state to develop long-term guidelines. The water board expects to implement the long-term plan by early 2011.

A workgroup representing varied water interests met several times last year to produce five plan alternatives, which are required under California's environmental-review process.

Three of them would have the regional water board, or another entity, oversee implementation of regulations and handling enforcement.

Two would put regional third parties, like the coalitions, in charge.

Water users expect the water board to apply similar rules to groundwater-quality monitoring, but the details won't be known until the board produces the first draft of its plan by spring or early summer.

"Our approach for surface water is resulting in improvements, and we think that can have the same (effect) in groundwater," Klassen said.