SAWQA - Amador Advisory Committee

News
The Amador Resource Conservation District (ARCD) and Agricultural Commissioner Mike Boitano are continuing to make progress in organizing a group option for agricultural irrigators to comply with new regulations of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (CVRWQCB). As of July 22, 2004, all agricultural irrigators (no matter which irrigation practices are being used) are required to file a Report of Waste Discharge, file a Notice of Intent for an Individual Waiver, or join a coalition group which has met the conditions set forth by the CVRWQCB. In Amador County agricultural irrigators now have the option of joining the South Sacramento-Amador Water Quality Alliance (Alliance).

The ARCD has agreed to take legal and fiscal responsibility for the Alliance. To date approximately 150 irrigators have signed up with the Alliance, membership meetings have been held the first Tuesday of each month, and an Amador Irrigators Advisory Committee has been formed. The Advisory Committee makes recommendations on all Alliance matters to the ARCD Board of Directors. At the meeting held on August 19, the ARCD Board appointed the following irrigators to the Advisory Committee: Robert Allen, Ken Deaver, Cecil Felkins, Jeffrey Gibson, Ann Kraemer, Carol Laubach, Carole Marz, Michael Spinetta, Lannie Staniford, Kevin Steward, Art Toy, and Joe Weinberger. Ed McCracken, Ron Ohm, and Jon Questo were appointed at the September 16 meeting. Beginning in October, regular membership meetings will be discontinued, but the Advisory Committee will meet monthly. All meetings are open to the public.

The Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition is divided into 10 sub-watersheds. One of the sub-watersheds is the South Sacramento/Amador County Sub-watershed. At a meeting on August 3 the membership considered breaking off from this sub-watershed. However, after reviewing the pros and cons, including cost estimates, it was decided that compliance with the CVRWQCB requirements would be too expensive for irrigators in Amador County unless they were cost shared with South Sacramento County.

Since the August 3 meeting, the ARCD and Cosumnes Watershed Coordinator Tina Lunt have prepared a joint Memorandum of Understanding, which will allow the Amador, Lower Cosumnes, and Sloughhouse RCDs to form the South Sacramento-Amador Water Quality Alliance (Alliance); this group will include both Amador and south Sacramento County irrigators. A revised monitoring plan has been submitted to the CVRWQCB and grant funding for the Alliance is being pursued with the cooperation of Upper Mokelumne Watershed Coordinator Terry Strange and our local Natural Resource Conservation Service staff.

In October of 2004 members will receive a bill for a fee for each irrigated acre to cover the costs of the Alliance. In other areas these fees have ranged from $.50 to $2.50 per irrigated acre. The fee will be based upon a budget recommended by the Irrigators Advisory Committees (one in each County) and approved by the RCD Boards. Irrigators who have signed up with the Agricultural Commissioner are currently in compliance with the CVRWQCB requirements, but once bills are sent out members will have to make their payments to remain in compliance.

Amador Irrigators Advisory Committee
Current members of the Advisory Committee are Robert Allen, Ken Deaver, Cecil Felkins, Jeffrey Gibson, Ann Kraemer, Carol Laubach, Carole Marz, Michael Spinetta, Lannie Staniford, Kevin Steward, Art Toy, and Joe Weinberger. Ed McCracken, Ron Ohm, and Jon Questo.

AMADOR IRRIGATORS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Meeting of September 7, 2004
Meeting called to order at 7:10

Present were Robert Allen, Cecil Felkins, Ann Kraemer, Carole Marz, Ed McCracken, Lannie Staniford, Joe Weinberger, Ron Ohm, and Dan Port.

The Agenda and the summary of the last Advisory Committee meeting were approved.

Port announced that the Amador RCD has appointed 12 members who volunteered to serve on the Advisory Committee. Jon Questo, Ed McCracken, and Ron Ohm have also volunteered to serve and will be appointed at the next RCD meeting. The Committee discussed the possibility of having to designate a limited number of Committee members to be voting members depending on the final terms of the Memorandum of Understanding used to implement the sub-watershed group.

The Committee agreed that all meetings should be open to the AWQA membership, that regular Advisory Committee meetings will be held, that membership meetings will no longer be held unless the Advisory Committee decides to call a meeting, and that at the next meeting the Committee will elect officers and decide how meetings shall be conducted. The Committee also agreed to try to pick a new meeting date since Tina Lunt has a conflict every other month.

The Committee approved the revised monitoring plan which was written by Tina Lunt in accordance with Advisory Committee direction.

The Committee approved a draft Memorandum of Understanding which would allow the four Resource Conservation Districts in the sub-watershed to work together to form a sub-watershed group to comply with the Irrigated Lands Waiver. There was a long discussion about the relationship between the RWQCB, the Coalition, the RCDs, and our sub-watershed group and the terms of the Irrigated Lands Group Waiver.

The Committee discussed the Agricultural Water Quality Grant Program created by the State Water Resources Control Board to assist sub-watershed groups in complying with the Waiver requirements.

next meeting: October 5, 2004 7:00 pm Ag Commissioners office
The agenda will include the election of officers and a budget for the coming year; the meeting is open to all members and the public.

Membership
A list of members will be posted if the Advisory Committee approves

Contact Us
For more information about the Alliance in Amador County contact Dan Port at 274-4351 or dport@volcano.net .

Directors

Steve Cannon, President
Lola Blevins, Vice Pres
Dan Port, Treasurer
Carole Marz

Associate Directors

Robert Long, Sutter Creek
Donald Jardine, Supervisor, Alpine Co.

NRCS Partners
Amy Rocha