Fighting Agricultural Pollution in the Central Valley
Most Recent News
The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Water Quality Resources Control Board held a joint workshop on irrigated lands and agricultural pollution waivers on September 13. This workshop drew attention away from the Boards’ lack of action to control agricultural pollution in the Central Valley and in Delta waterways. The stated purpose of the workshop was to address questions about the agricultural pollution waiver program – yet the Board failed to respond to Baykeeper’s comments submitted during the public comment period. The Board also failed to acknowledge claims levied in the recent lawsuit filed by Baykeeper and California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance and stands by its illegal program.
The Boards have thus far avoided sufficiently regulating California’s largest source of water pollution.
Baykeeper’s Latest Efforts to Reduce Agricultural Pollution in The Central Valley
Baykeeper filed suit in June 2007 against the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board for allowing big agriculture to freely pollute public waterways in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Baykeeper and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance had asked the State Water Resources Control Board to overturn a regulation issued by the Central Valley Board granting irrigated agriculture a pass on pollution restrictions. But the State Water Board bowed to pressure from the agricultural industry and allowed the waivers to stand in the Central Valley. Baykeeper has challenged this illegal loophole of California’s clean water laws and will continue our campaign to force tough regulations to control widespread agricultural pollution in the Central Valley and Delta.
Baykeeper has previously made strong progress in introducing regulations on agricultural pesticide pollution, including winning a groundbreaking set of interim regulatory requirements for agriculture in California’s Central Valley in 2004 – the first regulatory program for agricultural pesticides in the nation. And in 2006, Baykeeper won a new set of interim requirements for Central Valley agriculture that ask operators to file important new information and to monitor the impacts of pesticides they use. The challenge now is to ensure that these regulations are actually implemented and enforced.
Why Pollution Issues in The Central Valley Are Important For California
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in ecological turmoil. Agricultural pesticide runoff, nutrient pollution, toxic discharges from industrial sites, dredging, habitat loss, massive water diversions, and poor management have led to severely degraded water quality. Yet more than 22 million Californians depend on the Delta for drinking water, and it supplies irrigation to 6.3 million acres of farmland in the Central Valley. The health of the Delta is crucial for our state’s economy, public health and quality of life.
The State of Agricultural Pollution in The Central Valley
More than 200 million pounds of pesticide are applied to California farms every year. In the Central Valley, these chemicals are washed into the waterways of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and can impact rivers and streams of the Delta and Bay. Agricultural runoff has gone unregulated for more than 20 years in California and is one of the largest sources of water pollution in the state – threatening our drinking water, devastating aquatic habitat, and contributing to the dramatic collapse of fisheries like that of the Delta smelt. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, more than 500 miles of rivers and streams in the Central Valley are polluted by pesticides, pathogens, nitrates and salts, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation found these toxins in drinking water sources in 46 counties.
How This Pollution Can be Prevented
Nationally, pollution from agriculture is exempt from the Clean Water Act. California’s clean water law, however, requires regulations if agricultural pollution is shown to harm the environment. Baykeeper’s current suit seeks to force the State Water Board to impose strong permanent and enforceable controls on water quality in agricultural discharges. Polluters in the Central Valley must be held responsible for toxic discharges into the public waterways of the Delta.