and there wasn’t enough drinking water to provide a will-serve letter to the project.”


For DACs, getting safe, reliable water is not a sure thing. For that matter, the prospect of an organized distribution system is farther from reality than it should be. A commu- nity water system “can be just about anything and this is another part of the problem, we do not have adequate technical, managerial and funding (TMF) capability in a lot of these regions,” Orth said.


Small community water systems range from a single well that has no treatment to other locations where people struggle to fund expensive treat- ment plant processes.


In evaluating whether to fund a drinking water project, CDPH assesses whether a system has the overall capac- ity to receive money and carry out the project and to implement and maintain solutions. “We have a lot where there is insuffi cient governance or lack com- pletely thereof,” Orth said. “They can’t meet the TMF, have no way of organiz- ing themselves to get there … we need to create better avenues to develop this capacity. What can we do to help these folks get organized?”


At the March 18 hearing, Dr. Mark


Starr, CDPH’s deputy director for envi- ronmental health, told the committee that one of the mid-year amendments for the use of federal safe drinking water funds that the department recently pro- posed “would establish a pre-planning and Legal Entity Formation Assistance Program to assist small communities to form a system that can apply for plan- ning and construction funds, including consolidation projects.”


Pumping nitrate-contaminated water and using it to fertilize crops can be done, though the application is limited because it won’t work in areas where there are too many other salts in the groundwater. Furthermore, the water pulled by pumping has to be re- placed with fresh water seeping into the aquifer to prevent further overdraft. Blending, treatment, and alter- native water supplies “are most cost-


March/April 2013


effective,” the UC Davis report says, though “blending will become less available in many cases as nitrate pol- lution continues to spread.” Nitrate is a problem because many small communi- ties cannot afford safe drinking water treatment and supply actions and high fi xed costs “affect small systems dispro- portionately,” the report said.


Seeking Solutions to Nitrate-contaminated Drinking Water


Prompted by legislative mandate, the State Water Board in February directly addressed the issue of nitrate in groundwater through a pair of reports


Four Strategies for the Nitrate Problem


The Central Valley Water Board addresses nitrate in groundwater through four programs: • Irrigated Lands • CV SALTS • Groundwater Quality Protection Strategy


• Dairy Waste Discharge Requirements (WDR)


Irrigated Lands Program In place for 10 years, the Irrigated Lands Program aims to minimize waste discharged from irrigated agricultural lands so that nearby surface water and groundwater are protected. It is “entering a new phase” and is being expanded to include a regulatory program to protect groundwater quality through the control of all pollutants includ- ing nitrates, according to a fact sheet by the Central Valley Water Board. “High priority” will be placed on those lands that are located within areas of known groundwater contamination.


CV SALTS CV SALTS is a collaborative basin planning effort aimed at developing and implementing a comprehensive salinity and nitrate management program. A draft salt and nitrate


management plan will be brought to the Central Valley Water Board by May 2014 with a fi nal plan is due by 2016.


Groundwater Quality Protection Strategy The 2010 Groundwater Quality Protection Strategy is an over- view of the current conditions of groundwater quality in the Central Valley and the groundwater regulatory programs being imple- mented by the Central Valley Water Board. The “overarching” strategy will provide a roadmap for future regulatory and control activities, including the development and implementation of the dairy and ag- ricultural programs and CV-SALTS, according to the fact sheet. The roadmap focuses on actions that can be implemented within the next fi ve to 20 years.


Dairy Programs The Central Valley Water Board’s WDR for dairies “are stringent with a key focus on the control and abatement of nitrates to ground- water,” the fact sheet says. The WDR requires each dairy to fully implement management plans for waste and nutrients.


9


Read the report


“Recommendations Addressing Nitrate in Groundwater” by the State Water Boards


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