SANTA MARIA - Six irrigated land farming operations are facing fines ranging from $2,070 to $19,410 for alleged violations of the Irrigated Lands Agricultural Order.
The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board's Assistant Executive Officer has issued administrative civil liability complaints for failure to submit either cooperative monitoring fees or individual monitoring reports in violation of the irrigated lands agricultural order.
Farmers can either join a cooperative water monitoring program and pay a fee to have their runoff monitored by a third party or they can do it themselves and provide reports to CCWQCB regulators.
The farming operations that have been fined are in four Central Coast counties.
Regulators say monitoring quality of ag land water runoff is a vital public health concern.
"Groundwater is where most Californians get their drinking water", says Harvey Packard with the Central Coast Water Board, "it's very important to protect ground water and surface water."
Packard says nutrients, fertilizers and chemicals farmers use to grow crops are a threat to groundwater supplies as well as rivers and creeks that run to the ocean.
"We have requirements on people who potentially could cause water quality damages", Packard says, "we make sure they comply with the regulations."
The Central Coast Water Board has levied thousands of dollars in fines against the six farming operations in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San BenitoCounties for either failing to pay cooperative monitoring fees or providing their own individual monitoring reports.
CentralCoast farmers say current ag water runoff regulations, and new, more stringent rules about to be enacted, are unnecessarily burdensome and costly and a threat to their economic livelihood.
Regulators say if everyone pays their monitoring fee, it's the most cost-effective way to protect drinking water supplies.
"The whole program is premised on everybody participating", Packard says, "so we're making sure we get participation from everybody."
The farming operations that have been fined can appeal the decision to the Central Coast Water Board when it meets on October 12 in San Luis Obispo.
To read more about the six farming operations names in the complaints, go to:http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_decisions/tentative_orders/index.html
