Stop Ventura County’s Agricultural Pollution from Entering Our Ocean
Help us convince the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to stop extending compliance deadlines that should be enforced now to protect our coastal waters from agricultural runoff.
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Water Board) established the Ag Waiver program in 2005. It applies to all farming in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. Despite the program's existence and the efforts of many farmers to improve water quality through practices such as irrigation efficiency, nitrogen management, and treatment systems, a large number of agricultural operations continue to pollute waterways and state water quality standards are not currently being met in many circumstances.
Despite this the Regional Water Board is planning to issue a twelve month extension to the Ag Waiver program. Surfrider firmly believes that existing timelines and compliance deadlines must remain in place and not be waived past December 31, 2022 in order to protect coastal water quality from continued contamination from agricultural runoff. Farms and ranches must be accountable for self-monitoring their discharges and correcting discharges exceeding state water quality standards. Fines must be imposed for lack of meeting water target goals with public reporting. If farmers cannot self-monitor and self-correct their discharges effectively, the Board must seek federal funding to create Water Board staff to create measures and monitoring for fertilizer application reduction.
Contaminated runoff from farms and the over-application of fertilizers is a top source of ocean water pollution in California due to this exemption in federal law. As a result, farmers and ranchers are not effectively held accountable for harm done through agriculture discharge to our streams, rivers and ocean. Excessive nutrients and fertilizers can cause toxic algae blooms in the Santa Barbara Channel Islands that can harm wildlife and impair drinking water sources along with possible skin irritation and respiratory irritation for swimmers and surfers.
The Ventura County Chapter is urging the the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board to not postpone the Ag Waiver program for another 12 months, and take concrete steps to ensure individual ranch-level accountability now to protect clean water at the coast for a healthy environment, safe recreation and vibrant coastal economies.