Summary: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 Tomorrow, a local fight over rules governing the discharge of agricultural wastewater will be moving to Sacramento. If you track down today’s Land Use Report blog, you will find links to an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel describing the fight in general terms. In addition, I have provided a link to the official Notice of Public Hearing, which gives more technical information. Here is the basic situation: the Regional Water Quality Control Board with jurisdiction over the Monterey Bay Region has promulgated new rules that govern the discharge of agricultural wastewater. It took the Regional Board a long time to develop the new rules, which strengthened the previous rules, and the changes were extremely controversial. Those whose primary focus is on environmental protection, and especially on protecting the quality of our marine waters, wanted stronger rules. Farmers and agricultural interests didn’t want more stringent rules. The new rules actually adopted will require commercial agriculture to do more to reduce contaminants in their wastewater discharges. Agricultural interests have officially appealed the approval of the new rules. The hearing tomorrow, though, isn’t on the appeal proper, it is about the request of the agricultural interests to obtain a “stay” on the effectiveness of the rules while their appeal is pending. There is a lot at stake for our region. Check out today’s Land Use Report blog. More Information: Gary Patton’s Two Worlds Blog Santa Cruz Sentinel Article on State Water Board Meeting Notice of Public Hearing
