Water Board approves Settlement in 2012 Central Coast Ag
Waiver
By Norm Groot, Executive Director, Monterey
County Farm Bureau
Modifications were made
to final draft during lengthy State Water Board hearing in Sacramento on Sept.
24th
Monterey County Farm
Bureau attended the hearing held to finalize the order of settlement, passed
unanimously by the four commissioners present.
A brief overview of the
modifications that were inserted into the final order:
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| Norm Groot |
•
Growers are required to
submit their Annual Compliance Form by October 1st, 2013, using the same
version of the form from 2012's reporting cycle. Additional reporting
requirements are NOT added to this filing cycle.
•
Tier 2 and Tier 3 growers
will be required to report their Nitrate Reporting Risk Level by January 15th,
2014. Growers will report this on their Annual Compliance Form (as an
additional module to be added by CCRWQCB staff; no other portion of the form
will need to be reported or updated with this reporting requirement.
Growers will have a full two months to do this reporting after CCRWQCB posts
the module on their website).
•
State Water Board staff
proposed the reporting of nitrogen in irrigation water by concentration; Board member Steven Moore was persuaded by the “environmental
justice” and “enviro” comments that this information should be reported in pounds instead; the rest of the Board
agreed with this change.
•
A number of modifications
were included that affect the cooperative groundwater program and the
monitoring of domestic wells and the use of statistical projections of these
wells.
•
Language for containment
structures was modified to include more iterative practices to 'avoid'
percolation of constituents to the groundwater basin.
A final version of the
document will be issued by State Board staff in the coming week.
The environmental jusice
and enviro groups expressed, again, their extreme displeasure with the
revisions and the Ag Waiver in general. We may see further action by
these groups challenging the order of settlement.
Growers are encouraged to
complete their Annual Compliance Form filing by October 1st.
Labels: CENTRAL COAST GROWER GET SETTLEMENT IN AG WAIVER COMPLIANCE Norm Groot, Executive Director, Monterey County, Monterey County Farm Bureau
