Education For Environmental Responsibility

Some Delta farmers may face hefty fines

State targets those who didn't join coalitions under waiver program

This article appeared in the Stockton Record on February 1, 2008

By Alex Breitler, Record Staff Writer

The jig may soon be up for some Delta farmers who will be forced to monitor and report on pollution that spills from their fields into waterways.

State water cops over the next few years plan to order those landowners to file reports on their farms and runoff - orders which, if ignored, could lead to fines of up to $1,000 per day, according to documents from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Most farmers avoided this scenario by joining coalitions under the state's controversial "ag waiver" program, which started in 2003.

The program - currently being challenged in court by environmentalists - allows coalitions to keep tabs on water quality in select locations. Farmers in San Joaquin County pay $1.75 per acre for these services, which is far cheaper than the thousands of dollars it would cost to do it themselves.

Environmentalists argue the waiver lets farmers off the hook for their share of pollution problems that plague the Delta and other waterways. Now, farmers who declined to join coalitions will be held accountable.

A memo from the water board says that those who don't respond to the written orders will face "rapid" follow-up through property inspections, violations and citations.

"I've anticipated this, yes," said Alex Hildebrand, a south Delta farmer. "Anybody who was foolish enough not to join (a coalition) will hear about it now."

Most did join. About 80 percent to 85 percent of the irrigated farmlands in San Joaquin County are enrolled in a coalition, officials said.

Water officials have already issued about 1,400 orders trying to get information from farmers up and down the Central Valley.

The orders don't mean farmers have to start monitoring water quality immediately, but they must provide some basic information to regulators about their operations.

Turning that attention to Delta farms is the next step, said Ken Landau, the water board's assistant executive officer.

"Obviously, the Delta has serious water quality problems, which aren't brand new," he said.

Pollution from Delta farms may contribute to the decline of the estuary's native fish species, a hot topic and one of the state's largest ecological worries.

The State Water Contractors, a group of agencies that rely on water exported from the Delta, argues that the export pumps that suck in smelt and other fish aren't the only problem.

In public comments before state water officials last week, the contractors said that tests from May 2004 through October 2006 found pesticides exceeding water quality triggers at 57 percent of the locations sampled, some of them in the Delta.

Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings, the loudest critic of the ag waiver, said the state has promised for years to force farmers who did not join coalitions to test their runoff. He still considers the ag waiver to be a "paperwork Taj Mahal."

"There is still no requirement in there to actually reduce pollution," Jennings said.

Farmers who change their minds and want to join the coalition may not be out of luck, said Mike Wackman, a consultant who represents the San Joaquin County and Delta Water Quality Coalition.

Although the deadline has long since passed, he and Landau said the board may allow others to join even now.

Hildebrand said he doesn't have a lot of sympathy for those who have refused.

"It wasn't because they weren't notified," he said. "We did everything to see that they were; they were just stubborn."

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com.

On the Net: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/A_NEWS/802010313