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Forwarded Message From DeltaKeeper: Dear Friends: Over decades of toiling within the water quality arena, there have only been a handful of what I would consider sea-change opportunities - events that hold promise of significantly altering the regulatory landscape and fundamentally improving the environment. I believe such an opportunity is at hand, and I'm urgently asking for your help. For the first time, we're on the threshold of regulating the single largest source of water pollution and aquatic life toxicity in California. The six-year struggle to end the exemption of irrigated agricultural discharges from compliance with clean water laws will culminate in an all-day hearing in Sacramento before the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board on 10 July 2003. The legal record made for that hearing will determine how pollutant discharges from 9 million acres of farmland are controlled. I cannot overstate how crucial it is that you and your organization be there and that you send in the letter below. I realize that our schedules are nightmares and that we're all operating in triage. But such an opportunity to stand at the fulcrum-point for change seldom presents itself. I ask each of you to make a special effort to attend this hearing and help. More than 160 organizations, including virtually every major environmental group in the state, signed on to the Clean Farms, Clean Water policy letters. However individuals and organizations are crucially needed to show up and counter busloads of agriculture supporters. Our waterways need you to speak out about our common property right in our rivers and streams and the necessity that agriculture comply with regulations that have long applied to business, industry, and municipalities throughout the state. It is time for farmers to do their fair share to protect our waters. Please take the following actions: 1. E-mail, fax or mail the Regional Water Board so that your message arrives before 5 pm on July 7, 2003 so that you can officially go on record in favor of the environment and public health. Use the letter below and/or write your own. If you are with a watershed stakeholder organization, emphasize the problem the Board's proposed creation of watershed discharger groups causes in terms of competition for funds and other negative impacts with stakeholder processes. (Send a copy of your message to joanna@sfbaykeeper.org. Your email message header will act as your signature to the RWQCB.) 2. Attend and speak (30 seconds) at the hearing on July 10, 2003 on behalf of the environment and public health. Bring friends and colorful signs stating your support. Wear our buttons when you get there. Please visit http://www.cleanfarmscleanwater.org for more information. More information is at http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb5/programs/irrigated_lands/index.html The hearing will be at Cal EPA auditorium (1001 "I" Street, Sacramento). It starts at 8:30 am and will last all day. (Picture ID may be required to enter.) 3. Send this alert to all potentially supportive individuals and groups. Call and encourage them to attend and help. Organize car pools. 4. Write a letter to the editor. Send it to your state representatives and a copy to me. Feel free to contact me at 209-464-5090, Kari Morgan at 209-464-6368 or Sejal Choksi at 415-856-0444 for more information. Thank you for your help and I hope to see you in Sacramento on July 10th! Cheers! Bill
Jennings Clean Farms, Clean Water Campaign FACT SHEET Agriculture is the leading but least regulated source of pollution. * In 1982, the Central Valley Regional Board "conditionally waived" agricultural discharges from the reporting and permitting requirements of California's clean water laws. For decades, farmers have been allowed to discharge wastes into the state's waters without requirements to monitor or implement measures to control pollution. * Since 1982, both state regulators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have determined that agricultural pollution causes or contributes to the pollution of virtually every significant waterway in the Central Valley. * According to the U.S. EPA's 2002 list of impaired water bodies, over 635 miles of rivers and streams in the Central Valley, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and Delta, are so polluted by agricultural pesticides that they are unsafe for uses such as fishing, swimming, and drinking. * Farm runoff that reaches the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers contaminates drinking water supplies for millions of Californians in the Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. * Pesticides, pathogens, nitrates and salts have been detected in drinking water sources for at least 46 California counties. The Department of Pesticide Regulation detected pesticides in 96% of Central Valley locations tested, and over half of these detections exceeded unsafe levels for aquatic life and drinking water consumption. * In December 2002, the Regional Water Board renewed the waivers despite impassioned pleas from a coalition of environmental groups and editorials from the Valley's four largest newspapers. The coalition appealed to the State Board and filed a CEQA lawsuit over the failure to prepare an EIR. * The Regional Water Board revisited the issue during a highly contentious hearing in April 2003. Over 160 public health and environmental groups representing hundreds of thousands of Californians opposed waivers. * Following the hearing, the coalition accused the Board of violating conflict-of-interest and open-meeting regulations. The State Attorney General investigated and concluded that the process had been "irreparably tainted" and recommended that the State Board assume jurisdiction. The State Board declined. * The Regional Board has scheduled a final pivotal hearing to reconsider waivers for 10 July 2003. Environmental, sport-fishing and public health organizations oppose the proposed waiver because it contains no performance standards and timelines, provides no accountability, lacks necessary monitoring provisions, and fails to require fees to fund program costs. *
The 10 July 2003 hearing is the last chance to submit comments into the
record. Agriculture must be held to the same standards that apply to mom-and-pop
businesses, industrial corporations and municipalities -----SAMPLE LETTER-------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject Line of email: RE: TITLE OF OWNERSHIP TO CALIFORNIA WATERS Date: 4 July 2003 Attention:
Mr. Robert Schneider, Chairman Fax:
916-255-3015 I, Jan Vandersloot of Newport Beach, hereby asserts my ownership right to the waters situated within the state of California. I request that the Central Valley Regional Board and all other state entities respect my common property right to have clean, safe, healthy waters. No single, special-interest industry has the right to pollute the common property of the people of California, and if it does so, the Central Valley Regional Board must exercise its full power and jurisdiction to protect water quality. On July 10, 2003, the Regional Board must act on my behalf to protect my right to unpolluted waters, as required under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act 00. Title to California's rivers, streams, tributaries, and bays is vested in the people of the state of California. "The quality of all waters of the state shall be protected for use and enjoyment by the people of the state. Activities and factors which may affect the quality of the waters of the state shall be regulated to attain the highest water quality. The state must be prepared to exercise its full power and jurisdiction to protect the quality of the waters in the state from degradation." Water Code 00. In order to preserve and protect the public's right to unpolluted waters and salvage an "irreparably tainted" process, the Regional Board must: 1. Rescind the 5 December 2002 Conditional Waiver of Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges from Irrigated Lands and require submit reports of waste discharge under the Water Code. 2. Act on behalf of the public, not the dischargers, to rescind the negative declaration adopted on 5 December 2002 and prepare an adequate environmental impact report. 3. Act on behalf of the public, not the dischargers, to charge annual fees, which are commensurate with other industry regulatory fees and adequately cover the costs of implementation and enforcement of the program. 4. Act on behalf of the public, not the dischargers, to require polluters to identify themselves, adequately monitor their discharges, develop pollution prevention plans, and submit necessary reports. Agricultural dischargers do not have a right to pollute public waters. They must be held accountable like everyone else in this state. In order to ease the agricultural industry into compliance, we have been willing to consider a phased approach allowing time to implement best management practices. However it has become clear that voluntary measures have failed to protect water quality. They will likely fail in the future. The Regional Board has a responsibility to California and to the public, NOT to dischargers. As the largest source of water pollution in California, farmers must be made to do their fair share to stop polluting California's waterways. ____________________________ Signature Name Address City State Zip
Juliette Beck Back to T.O.C. 3
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