BY CHRISTINE SOUZA

AgAlert

To reduce nitrates and ensure that people have access to safe drinking water, the state has proposed tighter water quality requirements for all California dairies that collect dairy waste and apply it to land. 

The dairy general waste discharge requirements regulate only existing milk-cow dairies in the Central Valley region. But the draft order, if adopted as proposed, establishes new precedential groundwater quality protection requirements that would apply to all California dairies that apply their dairy waste to land, said Kari Fisher, senior director and counsel of legal advocacy at the California Farm Bureau. 

“The state is looking at manure differently from other fertilizer sources that agriculture uses and more as a point waste source rather than a beneficial material for the crop and the dairy operations,” she said. 

The California State Water Resources Control Board released the draft dairy order regulation last fall to address issues raised by environmental groups, which petitioned the state to revise the 2007 regional dairy general waste discharge requirements. 

Central Valley dairy farmers have been under scrutiny for leaching nitrates and salts into groundwater prior to 2007, when the state’s first dairy order was adopted. The existing waste discharge requirements call for dairy farmers to properly manage manure and nutrient applications, monitor groundwater quality near their operations and keep records. 

To reduce nitrates in groundwater, the draft dairy order establishes a new framework to regulate dairy discharges, requiring that dairies meet a nitrogen discharge limit of 10 milligrams per liter to comply with the nitrate drinking water standard. 

The draft also proposes new requirements for land application and waste retention ponds or lagoons. It also requires dairies to supply alternative drinking water for affected residents. The draft regulation identifies dairies that practice land application of manure, wastewater and fertilizer to crops as the source of “a significant portion of the nitrate contamination of groundwater in the Central Valley.” 

Stanislaus County dairy farmer Ron Peterson, who operates a dairy and grows silage crops and almonds near Hilmar, said California’s weather makes the state “a great place to dairy,” but government regulations make farming in the state difficult and costly. 

“Dairy producers and other farmers face plenty of economic challenges in California, but the regulations that we have to deal with here are so much greater than most farmers across the nation,” said Peterson, second vice president of the California Farm Bureau. “Regulations add to every cost across the board.” 

Peterson said he urged state water board officials to consider recommendations submitted Dec. 20 by a coalition of dairy and agriculture groups, including the California Farm Bureau, Dairy Cares, 11 county Farm Bureaus and others.  

In the letter to the state water board, the coalition said the draft order proposes an “unworkable and unreasonable approach.” It also said the regulation mischaracterizes the value and use of manure on dairies. The groups called the regulation’s approach for developing enforceable groundwater loading limits and numeric land application rates “fundamentally flawed.” In addition, they said requiring dairy producers to retrofit waste retention ponds would be a significant economic burden. 

The coalition said the proposed regulatory framework “duplicates efforts that have been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated by the Central Valley water board staff and others.” The groups urged the state to make the regional board the lead entity for developing dairy standards.  

Merced County dairy farmer Gino Pedretti III said he agrees that the local water board, which has local expertise and has worked on the issue for years, should take the lead in developing new water quality standards for dairies. 

“We are already mitigating the issue through CV-SALTS (Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long Term Sustainability) program and through our management group that tests water for nitrates,” he said. “If a well’s nitrates exceed 10 parts per million, residents are provided with free bottled water.”  

Pedretti said proposed requirements that restrict land application of manure on cropland counter healthy-soils efforts by other state agencies. 

“There’s value to using manure in a compost that will not leach nitrates into the groundwater if done properly,” Pedretti said, adding that application of manure on dairies leads to improved organic matter and better water-holding capacity. “This is something we (dairies) definitely need to do.”  

J.P. Cativiela, spokesman for Dairy Cares, said the state’s dairy sector is rising to the challenge by financially supporting nonprofits that provide free well testing and safe drinking water to families. Dairies are also constructing more than 300 anaerobic digesters, including lining manure retention ponds, implementing projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and participating in a state task force to make surplus dairy manure part of a circular renewable resource economy.

“We’re proud of the example our industry is setting for the world, and we hope that can continue,” Cativiela said. “However, it is essential to provide incentives and adequate timelines to allow these continued improvements to occur.” 

Stakeholders will have an opportunity to weigh in on potential revisions to the draft order during a workshop set for mid-2025. The state water board may adopt the draft regulation in late 2025 or early 2026. 

— Courtesy of the California Farm Bureau.