Amador
Resource Conservation District
Working
to help people protect, conserve and restore natural resources through
education, information and technical assistance programs
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Amador
Resource Conservation District
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SAWQA - Sacramento Advisory Committee News If you are a property owner/operator who has irrigated land and has not signed up with the Agricultural Commissioner to participate in the Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition, applied for an individual waiver or filed a Report of Water Discharge with the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) you are now out of compliance with the Regional Board’s regulations regarding Conditional Waivers of Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges from Irrigated Lands. Irrigated lands are defined as lands where water is applied for the purpose of producing crops, including field and tree crops. For the purpose of this waiver, commercial nurseries, nursery stock production, managed wetlands and rice production are considered irrigated lands. Locally, the Agricultural Commissioner has collected sign-ups from irrigators who want to be a part of the Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition. The Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition is divided into 10 sub-watersheds. Each sub-watershed must have a local eligible group willing to run the program. After much deliberation, the Sloughhouse Resource Conservation District (RCD) made a decision today to propose, if the irrigators want them to, the formation of the South Sacramento/Amador Irrigation Discharge Committee with the Amador, Florin and Lower Cosumnes RCDs. If all the RCDs agree to this proposal, they will support a program to assist irrigators in the Sacramento/Amador subwatershed with compliance. The Sloughhouse RCD would like irrigators to know that while they don’t agree with the regulations, they feel irrigators need an option to comply with the regulations that is less expensive and time-consuming than complying as individuals. While the RCDs could take on this task in the short term, the Sloughhouse RCD is also recommending the creation of a separate organization with representation from the local irrigators to take this on long term. Within the next month, the four RCDs will be reviewing a Memorandum of Understanding between the RCDs to see if they can come to a consensus on how the program should operate. If the Memorandum of Understanding is signed, they will form an Advisory Council. The Advisory Council will assist the RCDs with decisions regarding the implementation of the local program and in creating an entity that would be better suited to run this program long term. The RCDs need to know that you want their help! If you would like them to help organize this program locally (even if you have already signed up with the Agricultural Commissioner), please submit a brief statement to Resource Conservation Districts, 9701 Dino Drive, Suite 170, Elk Grove California 95624, by fax at 916-714-1117 or by email to tina.lunt@ca.nacdnet.net. If you would like to join the Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition or have additional questions, you can obtain an application and/or have your questions answered by contacting the Agricultural Commissioner’s office 916-875-6603, the Sacramento County Farm Bureau 916-685-6958, or the Sloughhouse Resource Conservation District 916-714-1104 ext. 112. Advisory Committee Membership Contact Us |
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