John Lindblom — Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT — Because of a newly enacted Central Valley Water Control Board regulation, a handful of Lake County growers and farmers will be required to enroll in a watershed group by Dec. 31 or deal with the board directly on a much more expensive and difficult basis.
The water control board has also set Sept. 30 as the date that watershed groups must submit a participation list that includes its members names, contact information and the APN number of the land being farmed.
Chuck March, executive director for the Lake County Farm Bureau, says that about 3,000 acres representing approximately two dozen farmers are not enrolled in watersheds in the county.
“Currently, we have about 150 growers signed up (in watersheds) and it covers about 13,250 acres, including 16,000 acres irrigated,” March said. “The (enrollment) percentage is pretty high, but we still need to get word to farmers who are not signed up.”
What the unenrolled growers need to know, March continued, is that they would be required by the Central Valley board to develop their own water monitoring plan and monitor irrigation run-off as well as winter-month storm runoffs.
“They have to monitor for any pollutants running off their property,” March said and do it at exorbitant costs.
Testing of one toxicity sample, he added, is $6,000 and the individual grower could be on the line to pay that amount three or four times a year.
“On a watershed basis, we do the monitoring and it covers basically all the growers in the county. We”ve been monitoring for two years now and this year our monitoring plan cost approximately $33,000, which was absorbed by the ag industry.”
In compar-ison, a water-shed member with less than 50 acres will pay a flat annual fee of $85 for membership dues. Growers with more than 50 acres are assessed $1.50 an acre.
Since the 1980s Central Valley growers from Bakersfield north to the Oregon border have operated under a waiver that waives the requirement for individual waste discharge permits.
In 1998, the California Senate introduced SB390, which requires regional water quality boards to review these waivers every five years. The first waiver began as only three years, but was extended to five.
“Recently the regional board put renewed the five-year waiver, but they put some conditions on it,” said March. “It”s going to be a little crazy for the regional growers, so we need to get the word down to the growers that if they irrigate they need to contact the (Farm Bureau) office and get signed up on this program if they”re not already signed up.”
March added that some dry-land farmers in the as-yet unsigned group, such as walnut growers, do not necessarily need to sign.
Contact John Lindblom at jlindblom@record-bee.com.
