Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition
The Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition (Coalition) was formed in 2003 to enhance and improve water quality in the Sacramento River (Sacramento River Basin, Region 5a), while sustaining the economic viability of agriculture, functional values of managed wetlands and sources of safe drinking water. The Coalition is comprised of more than 7,500 farmers and wetlands managers encompassing more than one million irrigated acres and supported by more than 200 agricultural representatives, natural resource professionals and local governments throughout the region to improve water quality for Northern California farms, cities and the environment.
The Coalition developed and submitted its Regional Plan for Action (Plan) to the State Water Resources Control Board and the Regional Water Quality Control Board for the Central Valley (Regional Board) in June 2003. The Plan was submitted as the Coalition's General Report with its Notice of Intent (NOI) to meet the newly adopted water quality requirements associated with discharges from irrigated lands. The Plan serves as a road map for the Coalition by describing a watershed approach for the Sacramento Valley. The Plan will help the Coalition implement the SWRCB and Regional Board's Strategic Plans by concentrating on entire watersheds rather than focus on specific constituents or discrete discharges. The Plan also carries out the Regional Board's Watershed Management Initiative, which specifically recognizes the Sacramento River Basin as a management area or "watershed." On February 10, 2004, the Regional Board issued a Notice of Applicability (NOA) to the Coalition verifying the NOI was complete and approved.
To effectively implement the MRP, the Coalition and ten Subwatershed Groups have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that defines the respective roles and responsibilities of the Subwatershed Groups, as well as the Northern California Water Association, Ducks Unlimited and the Coalition for Urban Rural Environmental Stewardship, to implement the Regional Plan, including the roles of consultants that will assist in this process. Additionally, the Coalition has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the California Rice Commission to coordinate the respective programs in the Sacramento River Basin. The Coalition is pursuing partnerships with municipalities and urban areas in the region that are developing stormwater management plans and facing increasingly more stringent effluent limitations.
To implement the Plan and to meet the Regional Board's regulations, the Coalition has prepared and submitted two documents on April 1, 2004 that will serve as the foundation for a rational, phased water quality management program: 1) a Watershed Evaluation Report (WER) and 2) a Monitoring and Reporting Program Plan (MRP). (For a complete copy of either of these documents, please contact NCWA at (916) 442-8333)
The WER is a comprehensive watershed assessment prepared by local agricultural representatives, wetlands managers and natural resource professionals. The WER provides a detailed descriptions of the landscape in each of the ten Coalition subwatershed areas, including cropping patters, soil quality, water quality issues, management practices implementation and pesticide use.
The ultimate output of the WER is a drainage prioritization table for each subwatershed area. Using DWR Land-Use Survey Data, the entire twenty-one county region was divided into nearly 250 geographic areas. The Coalition evaluated raw acreage numbers for orchard, annual and pasture crops (excluding short- and long-grain rice) respectively in each drainage area and then multiplied these raw acreages by a "weighting factor" with orchards receiving the greatest emphasis and pasture the least. Adding each of these weighted acreages in each subwatershed area produced an index that was used as the primary criterion for ranking a drainage area. The Coalition also evaluated diazinon, chlorpyrifos, copper and pyrethroid use in each drainage area and used this data as the second criterion. The third criterion was the existence of impaired waterbodies listed under the so-called 303(d) list. Each Subwatershed Group then evaluated the ranked drainages in their subwatershed, and based upon their local knowledge of the hydrology and current issues, selected monitoring sites for the initial sampling.
Following extensive review by the Regional Board and considerable discussion and negotiation regarding the details of the Coalition MRP, the Regional Board issued a Conditional Approval on December 2, 2004. The Coalition has completed its Quality Assurance Project Plan, including sampling site specifics, and sampling follow-up methodologies.
If sampling reveals significant and persistent toxicity as defined in the MRP, or exceedances of relevant water quality objectives, then a diagnostic approach will be used to expand monitoring activities upstream to identify the "general source" of toxicity or cause(s) of exceedances. If the magnitude and duration of the toxicity or water quality objective exceedance is sufficient to warrant implementation of management practices, the Coalition will mobilize its partners at the subwatershed area level to work with growers to implement practices intended to improve water quality. The Coalition will determine the spatial distribution of crops associated with the identified constituent of concern in the affected subwatershed area. The County Agricultural Commissioners and other local partners will then organize management practices workshops with growers. If water quality problems persist, the Coalition will engage County Agricultural Commissioners in the implementation of a Mandatory Product Stewardship Program. This program, requested by the County Agricultural Commissioners and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), engages the pesticide registrants and charges them with a more specific management practice outreach program directly associated with their product. The Coalition plans to move through this response strategy with Regional Board oversight through "Communications Reports" and "Annual Reports," thereby providing the Regional Board information sufficient to take stricter action if necessary.
