This article which ran in the Central Valley Ag Supplement of the Fresno Business Journal provides a summary of the areas
of water quality and water supply issues that are the most compelling.
I.
Basin Plans
The state Porter-Cologne Water Quality
Control Act requires the adoption of water quality control plans (Basin Plans)
that provide the outline for managing water pollution in California. The plans
incorporate the beneficial uses of water in that basin and then provide
objectives that maintain and protect these uses. Many of the State’s current
policy changes are implemented through amendments of the existing Basin Plans,
including the Irrigated Lands Program, the Salt and Nitrate Management Plan
that was developed under the CV-Salts program, and the proposed changes to the
Bay-Delta Plan.
A.
Irrigated Lands Programs (“IRLP”)
The state IRLP regulates
commercial irrigated lands, including nurseries and managed wetlands. Options
for regulatory coverage include joining a Third-Party (coalition) group or
obtaining individual coverage. The coalition groups work directly with members
to assist in complying with requirements that include conducting water quality monitoring
and preparing and filing regional plans and reports to address water quality
problems. Growers who choose to obtain individual coverage must conduct their
own monitoring and reporting and work directly with the Central Valley Water
Board to address water quality problems. The coalitions are generally subject
to adopted orders for the relevant Basins.
B.
CV Salts
A coalition of agriculture, cities, industry, and regulatory
agencies worked for a number of years developing a plan for managing salts and
nutrients. The Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term
Sustainability initiative (CV-SALTS) was initiated in 2006 to develop a
management plan. This plan requires amendments to the Basin Plans for the
Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Basins and the Tulare Lake Basin. The
focal point for the amendments is the Central Valley-wide Salt and Nitrate Management Plan (SNMP). The SNMP
provides a framework for managing salt and nitrates in the Central Valley and
identified 11 proposed strategies, policies, policy changes or clarifications
to the Basin Plans to facilitate the implementation of the proposed strategies
and policies contained in the SNMP. These
amendments establish a three phase program that interfaces with the IRLP and
includes permitting, further studies and provides specific recommendations for
the control and permitting of salt discharges to surface and groundwater and of
nitrate discharges to groundwater.
C. Bay-Delta
Plan
The State Water Board is considering the adoption of proposed
amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (the “Bay-Delta Plan”). The proposed
amendments include new and revised flow objectives for the Lower San Joaquin
River and its tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers, for the
“reasonable protection” of fish and wildlife and beneficial uses and revised
salinity water quality objectives for the southern Delta agricultural
beneficial uses, as well as a program of implementation for these objectives. The
current plan calls for 40 percent of the flow to be allowed to flow downstream unimpaired.
It has been estimated that in a normal year, this would take 290,000 acre-feet
of water from farms and cities, which is about 14 percent of the total amount
they currently receive. The impact would be greater in a drought year in such
conditions farms and cities could lose an estimated 673,000 acre-feet. Similar
amendments will be proposed for the Sacramento River system as well. It is believed that in addition to losses in
water use from surface sources, the reduction could impact groundwater supplies
as well as the recharge that could affect sustainable plans under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act discussed below.
2.
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)
On Sept. 16, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown
signed into law a three-bill legislative package, composed of AB 1739
(Dickinson), SB 1168 (Pavley), and SB 1319 (Pavley), collectively known as the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Under this statute, groundwater users
in basins starting with those that are prioritized based on their level of overdraw,
must organize into groups that will in turn develop a plan to balance the
groundwater resources in that basin; the plans are due in January 2020. This statute will affect the amount of water
available to specific users creating effects on the operations and transactions
involving all aspects of agriculture in the Valley. It is predicted that a
considerable amount of land could be required to be fallowed under this statute
to meet the requirements for a balanced groundwater system.
3.
1,2,3,-Trichloropropane (1,2,3 - TCP)
On Dec. 14, 2017, the California
Water Resources Control Board -Division of Drinking Water adopted a regulation
promulgating an maximum concentration limit (MCL) for 1,2,3 – TCP at the low
level of 0.000005 milligrams per liter (5 parts per trillion). 1,2,3-TCP data
has been compiled which shows statewide that 388 drinking water sources
exceeded the 1,2,3-TCP MCL during the first quarter of 2018. It is estimated that more than 2 million
pounds of pesticides containing 1,2,3-dichloropropene were used in California
alone in 1978. The new level of 5 parts per trillion has resulted, and will
continue to result, in millions of dollars in new treatment units as well as
triggering enforcement actions and lawsuits against the manufacturers and more
recently claims against chemical distributors
