Gilroy – With just two weeks left to conform with new water
quality requirements, farmers are scrambling to file all the
necessary paperwork and figure out how to bring their farms into
compliance.
Gilroy – With just two weeks left to conform with new water quality requirements, farmers are scrambling to file all the necessary paperwork and figure out how to bring their farms into compliance.
“My phones have been ringing off the hook,” said Mary Ellen Dick, a water quality coordinator with the Six County Agriculture Coalition. “Everyone is saying ‘oh my, we have to get this done.’ ”
In July, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted new rules – called a conditional waiver – governing discharge of fertilizers, pesticides, dirt and sediment, and other waste products from irrigated land. Farmers have until the end of 2007 to meet all of the new standards, but they must file a notice of intent to comply by Jan. 1. Farmers not enrolled might face fines of up to $1,000 a day.
Fortunately, Dick said, most area farmers are already more or less in compliance.
“In general, I’ve found that farmers already have at least half of the necessary practices in place,” she said. “If they don’t, it’s because they haven’t heard about them.”
Tim Chiala of George Chiala Farms in Morgan Hill said Friday that most of the environmental standards mirror good business sense.
“A lot of what needs to be in the waiver, we already do,” Chiala said. “Most farmers don’t do blanket fertilizing. Spraying pesticides is our biggest expense after labor, so we only use what the fields need.”
Still, he said, the time and expense to prove compliance is unwelcome.
“I wonder what they’re going to make us do next,” he said. “Are we going to need permits to irrigate? It’s scary to see what’s to come.”
Under the old waiver, which was instituted in 1983 and expired last year, farmers were required to meet certain water quality regulations, but there was no formal registration and there were no monitoring systems in place. It was essentially an honor system.
Alison Jones, an environmental scientist with the Regional Board, said that her organization’s testing of the state’s watershed show high levels of nitrates, pesticides, fertilizers and sediment in surface water. Lower Salinas and the Pajaro River watershed are two particularly contaminated areas.
“We don’t hold agriculture fully responsible, but the data show severe impacts to the state’s water,” Jones said. “When we look for toxicity, we find it associated with agriculture.”
The new waiver requires growers to complete 15 hours of water quality education, develop a water quality plan for their farms that address management of nutrients, pesticides, irrigation and erosion control. Plans need to have detailed maps showing slopes, ditches, rivers and creeks and other areas with runoff potential, and the practices used to control erosion.
Farmers in compliance need to make a progress report at the midway point of the five-year waiver cycle. Those not in compliance must report annually. Monitoring is the responsibility of the grower, and could cost farmers between $3,000 and $5,000 a year. The Regional Board is going to allow a cooperative monitoring system, which farmers can elect to join when filing their notice of intent. For at least the first year, the system will be free to farmers.
Chiala said he’s using rocks and mulch to combat erosion along roadside ditches at his property and documenting his effort with photographs.
“We already do 90 percent drip irrigation so we don’t have a lot of runoff,” Chiala said. “We have just a few problem areas along the roadside.”
The five-week course is offered by the UC Cooperative Extension for $175. The nest session begins January 4, 2005, in Hollister. Classes are also offered for ranchers, but they are not mandatory.
Controlling runoff is best accomplished through drip irrigation, the use of drainage tiles, special care of riparian areas – or land on either side of a river – and year-round use of land, which Dick called “counter-intuitive.”
“The idea has always been that if you clear your field in the fall, it will be ready to go in the spring,” Dick said. “But studies have shown that winter crops will suck water out of the ground and prevent dirt from running off in the spring.”
Jeannie Lopez of Uesugi Farms in Gilroy agreed that most farmers already use the prescribed techniques.
“We do so much drip irrigation that we don’t have runoff unless we have a break,” she said. “We’ve been getting ready for this for two years, so even though it’s been an ordeal, we’re ready to rock and roll.”
Growers say that the toughest part of the process was the Regional Board’s tardy release of notification forms. The policy change was made in July, but the paperwork wasn’t made available until Dec. 3.
“Most of the flurry is because the forms did not come early,” Dick said. It was just hurry up and wait.”
Upcoming classes
Classes to help farmers meet new discharge requirements:
• Writing a Farm Plan
Hollister: Tuesday, Dec. 28, 1 to 3:30pm; Morgan Hill: Thursday, Dec. 30, 1 to 3:30pm
• Filing Notice of Intent
Gilroy: Wednesday, Dec. 29, 10am to noon; Morgan Hill: Thursday, Dec. 30, 10am to noon.
• The next 15-hour Irrigated Agricultural Water short course begins Jan. 4, 2005, in Hollister. For more information about that and other classes, call the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau at (408) 776-1684.
