The Merced River below Snelling, photo by Andrew Shun, Dept. of Conservation, 2004.

Congratulations to the East San Joaquin Valley Water Quality Coalition (Coalition) on demonstrating water quality improvement in area waterways – including in two of its three targeted problem areas: the Dry Creek, Duck Slough/Mariposa Creek, and Prairie Flower Drain watersheds. Despite the initial frustration and the challenges of coordinating and funding a large regional coalition of landowners, industry, and watershed interests to insure compliance with strict regulatory guidelines, the Coalition’s hard work is paying off.

In 2003, the sunset of the Ag Waiver (a water quality-related exemption from the state requirement to obtain a water discharge permit for irrigated agriculture runoff) alarmed farmers and ranchers who would be tasked with funding and implementing the state’s water quality monitoring and management standards for agricultural lands. Fortunately, the state provided for conditional waivers of permitting requirements under conditions that irrigated Ag landowners could live with, though barely.

As the lower Merced River watershed coordinator for a Valley resource conservation district in 2003, I worked with others to form the Coalition and meet new requirements established in the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (Regional Board) new Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP).

Under the ILRP, agricultural dischargers into waters of the state had to choose to Œ 1. file regular reports with the Regional Board to obtain a permit and insure all discharges meet water quality objectives,  2. join a coalition of Ag landowners and obtain a waiver, monitor, and manage water quality in area waterways, or Ž 3. obtain a waiver, monitor, and manage their own individual discharge – an expensive and highly technical undertaking.

The Coalition has grown to cover irrigated Ag lands east of the San Joaquin River in Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Mariposa Counties and portions of Calaveras County. It contains 550,470 irrigated acres and has 2,378 members. Since 2003, the Coalition and other Central Valley agricultural efforts have collectively spent over $15 million to assess and address the impacts of farm runoff on regional waterways.

Over the last four plus years, the Coalition has conducted baseline monitoring in 40 different locations in the region. Beginning with baseline monitoring in 2004, it determined there were numerous locations in the region where Ag discharges were a problem and developed an overall management plan for 27 waterways and identification of the three problem watersheds above.

According to the Coalition’s recently released 2009 Annual Report, the initial management plan focuses on chlorpyrifos among several others, “an insecticide widely used in the region due to its cost effective control of invertebrate pests on many crops, particularly almonds, walnuts, and alfalfa”.

After aggressive outreach and education to members in targeted watersheds in 2008 and subsequent monitoring in 2009, water and sediment quality sample results showed no exeedance of water quality standards in two of the three watersheds. The third watershed continued to exceed standards for the pesticide chlorpyrifos, but further investigation identified the source as a farmer enrolled in a different program who was uninformed about the Coalition’s efforts. Coalition leaders note in the Report that additional years of monitoring will follow to scientifically validate the results, however 2009 outcomes are highly encouraging.

While it’s great news that water quality has demonstrably improved in the key Central Valley watersheds above, why am I blogging about it?

For starters, Tuolumne County has irrigated Ag land covered by the Coalition. Since water runs downhill, their success is ours too. Agriculture is not a villain or the source of widespread willful and egregious pollutant discharges into this region’s rivers and streams as some would have you believe. To be sure, there are still some who discharge polluted runoff, but the Coalition is catching up with them and helping them mend their ways.

Coalition farmers and ranchers have gotten on board with the conditional waiver. They’re educating each other, monitoring and planning to improve water quality, using best management practices and they’re policing themselves. They demonstrate the Coalition model works.

So once again, congratulations to the Coalition and its leaders Executive Director Parry Klassen and Wayne Zipser of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. They’re doing their part to insure the San Joaquin River and its tributaries have good water quality. Thanks, folks!

To learn more about the Coalition and its efforts, go to www.esjcoalition.org or contact them at 209-522-7278.

1. Attend a Board meeting in Twain Harte, Tues., Feb. 9, at 6:30 pm at the Twain Harte-Long Barn Union School District Office (Telele Lodge – auditorium), 18995 Twain Harte Drive;
2. Attend a Town Hall meeting in Tuolumne on Weds., Feb. 10, at 6:30 pm at Summerville High School’s library; and/or
3. Take a survey online at www.TuolumneCounty.ca.gov.

The Board would like District 3 residents’ opinions on the following:

• What are the greatest needs within the County right now?
• What are the highest priority County services?
• What are the main issues the County should be planning for in the future?
• How should County leaders go about balancing future budgets?

County staff will draft a 5-Year Strategic Plan reflective of citizen input for Board consideration. Citizens will be asked to comment on the draft plan once completed. The Board will adopt the final 5 year strategic plan in 2010.

Sonora - The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors wants input from residents on what they feel are the most important things the County should be doing over the next several years. Your input will help staff develop a first ever 5-Year Strategic Plan for the County.

We’ve scheduled a series of special Board meetings in each supervisorial district. The schedule is:

• January 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Willow Springs Club House;
• February 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Chambers;
• February 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Black Oak School/Telele Lodge
• February 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Groveland Community Hall; and
• February 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Church of the 49er Social Hall .

Can’t attend any of those dates? Some districts (including District 3) will hold additional Town Hall meetings to get further input – we’re planning a Town Hall meeting in Tuolumne, as well.

There will also be a basic survey you can complete any time from January 26 through February 23 online at www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov.

We’d like your opinion on the following:

• What are the greatest needs within the County right now?
• What are the highest priority County services?
• What are the main issues the County should be planning for in the future?
• How should County leaders go about balancing future budgets?

After the special meetings are held and responses received to the survey, County staff will draft a 5-Year Strategic Plan reflective of citizen input for Board consideration. Citizens will be asked to comment on the draft plan once completed, and the Board will adopt a final plan within the next several months.

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 Is it time to get tough with our state (and federal) leaders? What do you think?

Fortunately, District 3′s Greg Falken of webdancers (www.webdancers.com) has brought Teri’s List back and is creating a new and improved website, as well. Greg and webdancers are now hosting our website and blog and administering Teri’s List and they do a great job. Longtime Teri-team-member Lorraine Schultz of The Alexandra Group (lschultz) also helped with the design of the new website. Please talk to them about your Internet website hosting, graphic design and publishing, marketing, and related needs: their customer service is tops and both are local District 3 businesses!

On the new website, you’ll see:

• Teri’s Blog is now the main page of the new website. You can access past blog postings readily and the information pages (About Teri, Tuolumne County, News Clippings, Office Hours, etc.) are still conveniently accessible.
• Feedback is the place for you to share your concerns and opinions about county policies and decision-making and also where you can ask questions to which Teri will respond online. Do you have heart-burn over the proposed Law & Justice Center? Do you have an idea for improving a county service? This is the place to weigh in.

As the economic times get tougher, it is increasingly more important to stay in close contact. We hope you’ll take advantage of our combined efforts (county, Greg, Lorraine, Teri, etc.) to communicate more effectively on important issues and to hear back from you. It takes a team to get it done and folks have stepped up to help. Together we can! Thank you!