Posted on 02/21/2005 8:55:19 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Farmers, environmentalists and pollution cops are unhappy with the system for policing pollution caused by farm irrigation that went into effect a year ago.
And almost no one can point to evidence that the new system of testing by coalitions of farmland owners is doing any good.
The first reports that might show whether the coalitions have managed to prevent toxic substances such as pesticides from running into rivers or sinking into groundwater are due April 1. But two of the nine coalitions that cover the Central Valley -- including the one handling farms in San Joaquin County and the Delta -- have yet to win state approval for the series of tests that were supposed to generate data for the reports.
The water tests were supposed to start during the height of irrigation season in July.
"It is not going to be perfect, I think," said Bill Croyle, supervisor for the Irrigated Lands Waiver unit of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. "Whenever you do things the first time, it is always a little more difficult."
John Meek runs the San Joaquin County and Delta Water Quality Coalition. He says it was state regulators who put the testing program behind by failing to promptly review and approve testing programs.
Still, once it was clear the irrigation system was slipping away, the San Joaquin County & Delta coalition began water testing in August, Meek said.
"We did get the last two months of the irrigation season in, even though we were not approved," Meek said, adding that tests so far have given area farms a clean bill of health. "What it is showing is that agriculture is doing its job and following label regulations and is not the major problem."
Meek said additional tests were being done Wednesday to check for pollutants that might be in storm runoff.
For many years, farms have had a waiver that makes them exempt from the water pollution laws that govern cities and industry. But in 2003, under pressure from environmental groups, the waiver was changed to place a variety of conditions on farms.
Many environmentalists argued that the waiver should be ended altogether. State officials view the waiver as a temporary measure until they can develop a plan in a few years to bring farms under water pollution laws.
The conditions that went into effect last year require farms to monitor nearby waterways for pollution. Landowners have the option of banding together in coalitions to keep costs down and ease the burden of compliance. Most farmers say it would be prohibitively expensive for them to do the tests on their own.
Meek said owners of 80 percent of the 545,000 irrigated acres in the coalition area have signed up and paid $1 per acre toward testing costs. If farmers don't join a coalition, they must either do the testing themselves to come under the waiver or comply with water pollution rules by getting a waste discharge permit from the regional board.
Farmers don't like having to shell out the extra money but say joining a coalition and complying with the waiver is still better than having to follow all water pollution laws.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the waiver system and coalitions are smokescreens to allow business as usual. Lawsuits against the waiver system filed by the California Farm Bureau Federation and environmental groups will go to trial March 30 in Sacramento County Superior Court.
The Farm Bureau suit argues that the waiver eliminates protections farmers have elsewhere in the law from unannounced inspections of their property and disclosure of trade secrets.
The Farm Bureau suit also seeks to correct what the bureau sees as overly burdensome requirements for farmers who seek to comply with the waiver individually rather than by joining a coalition, said Tony Francois, director of water resources for the Federation.
Environmentalists argue that the state Water Resources Control Board broke the law when it authorized the present waiver.
"These coalitions are legal fictions," said Bill Jennings of DeltaKeeper, one of the environmental groups suing to have the waiver thrown out. "There is no way to enforce against it."
All sides agree that many farmers aren't even complying with the less-stringent waiver requirements. One sore point for state regulators is that a State Water Resources Control Board decision makes it difficult for them to even find which farms are signed up with coalitions and which aren't.
"The coalition groups don't need to disclose that to us," Croyle said.
Some coalitions in the Sacramento Valley estimate only 30 percent of the owners of irrigated land have signed up.
Even the San Joaquin County & Delta Water Quality Coalition can't account for 125,000 of the 545,000 irrigated acres in the region.
Meanwhile, coalitions are gearing up to expand their testing next year to more sites and to measure more pollutants.
The coming year's tests also will look for toxic metals and nutrients in waterways. Nutrients -- whether from manure, nitrogen fertilizer or other sources -- are a concern, because they can stimulate algae growth or cause other problems in rivers.
Mary Hildebrand grows silage corn on her farm along the San Joaquin River south of Manteca. She says the low water table beneath her fields makes it more likely that groundwater -- rather than the nearby river -- would get any pollutants from her fields.
She blames fear of environmentalist lawsuits for pushing the state to change the waiver system. But she has hope that some good may come of it.
"I think that what is going to come out of this at great expense is that agriculture is not causing as much of a problem as it is accused of," Hildebrand said.
And where pollution is happening, she believes most farmers are eager to make changes so their operations won't be a problem. She said keeping the system low cost -- no more than $1 per acre per year -- and simple will help.
"As people get educated on what is going on, we are still getting sign-ups," she said of the local coalition.
Meek said he has scheduled a March 23 workshop for landowners to learn about practices that might help them avoid trouble with pollutants reaching waterways.
Meanwhile, Jennings said he and other environmentalists hope to persuade a federal judge to end the waiver system and order more thorough testing and stricter enforcement.
Croyle, however, said his agency will be able to eventually craft a better plan for regulating farm water pollution once it has the information the coalitions are now gathering.
"To really get some hard data that we can stand by is really going to take two or three years," Croyle said.
Ping.
Under this system California will get back more than its fair share federal taxes as federally funded welfare programs, house, feed and educate these masses of illegal immigrants and the explosively expanding population of their citizen progeny.
It's a win-win-win situation. No more contrary, conservative farmers to deal with. Third world oligarchies will be relived of their burden to improve the lives of their subjects. US politicians will have these new, potential political converts concentrated in one area making pandering much more efficient.
BTT!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.