Posted August 24, 2015
A Sacramento Superior Court judge has ordered the state to
write stricter controls for agriculture water runoff in Monterey, San Luis Obispo
and Santa Barbara Counties, according to The Californian article available here.
KCBX also published an article available here
and Monterey County Weekly here.
Judge
Timothy Frawley issued his decision on Aug. 10, following a May 15 hearing,
resulting from 2013 lawsuit filed against the California Water Resources
Control Board by five nonprofit groups and a Gonzales woman whose tap water is
contaminated with ag waste.
Their
concern is that pesticides were polluting water supplies. Specifically, the
group contended a conditional waiver from the Central Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board didn't provide enough environmental protections,
according to KCBX.
The judge
in this case agrees and said new rules need to be developed to protect both
surface and groundwater supplies.
Current
research contends that nitrates and phosphates present in ag runoff promote the
growth of blooms in the ocean that produce toxics capable of poisoning marine
mammals and birds, according to The
Californian.
Judge
Frawley issued a peremptory writ of mandate, ordering the State Water Resources
Control Board to set aside its Ag Order and reconsider the conditional waiver
of waste discharge requirements and its monitoring and reporting program.
He agreed
with the environmental groups that the state board’s modified waiver is “not in
the public interest because there is no evidence it will lead to quantifiable
improvements in water quality or arrest the continued degradation of the
Central Coast region’s water.”
The state
water board is still reviewing the court's decision and considering an appeal,
according to spokesman Tim Moran, as stated in the Monterey
County Weekly.
Sacramento-based
attorney Tess Dunham representing Western Growers and the Grower-Shipper
Association on the ag waiver says an appeal is definitely on the table.
"We
are disappointed with the decision," she says. "We don't believe that
the judge was correct in this case. We think he got it wrong."
For more information on environmental law, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
