Study begins to isolate Delta pollution causes

STOCKTON
July 27, 2007 1:10pm

A first-ever report from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board says the rivers of the Valley and the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta are polluted with bacteria and pesticides.

An environmental group says part of the problem can be traced to water runoff from agricultural operations.

“The results, quite frankly, are astonishing and present a dramatic panorama of the epidemic of pollution caused by the uncontrolled discharge of agricultural wastes,” says Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

But a farming group says the pesticide reports may be due to better water testing than in the past.

The draft report is the first region-wide assessment of water pollution data collected under the state’s Irrigated Lands Program since its inception in 2003.

Data was collected from 313 sites throughout the Central Valley. Some were measured just once; others were measured several times.

According to an analysis of the report by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance of Stockton, pollution potential toxic to fish was found at 63% of the monitoring sites; pesticide water quality standards were exceeded at 54% of sites; human health standards for bacteria were violated at 87% of monitored sites and more than 80% of the locations exceeded general parameters for dissolved oxygen and other measurements for the quality of water.

(Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, talks about the report in today’s CVBT Audio Interview. Please click on the link below to listen or to download the audio file to your iPod or PC.)

California’s ambient monitoring program and scientists from the University of California at Davis collected data from 53% of the sites. The rest were monitored by agricultural coalitions or individual water agencies.

Discharges of agricultural pollutants are allowable under waivers of waste discharge requirements issued by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality in 2003 and renewed in 2006. Those waivers are being contested in a lawsuit filed by CSPA and Baykeeper against the board in June.

The report is posted on the Regional Board’s website at: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralvalley/programs/irrigated_lands

Comments on this story

jack 7/27/07 2:32 PM
Is that Bill Jennings, or SANTA?