Groups demand strong groundwater testing program for dairies in California’s Central Valley

From the Food & Water Watch:

“Sacramento, Calif. – Food & Water Watch, Community Water Center, the California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance and four other organizations delivered a petition today to California’s Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (the Board) asking the Board to strengthen its groundwater-monitoring program around the region’s dairies. As currently written, the program fails to test for several major contaminants that threaten public health and the environment.

The Board regulates waste management on roughly 1,600 Central Valley dairies, which together house as many as 2 million mature dairy cows. The cows produce 50 million tons of waste per year. Groundwater contamination from dairy cow waste is widespread in the Central Valley; the waste is not treated, but instead stored in giant earthen “lagoons” and spread on cropland, where it can leach into groundwater.

“Each year, dairies in the Central Valley produce eight times as much waste as the city of Los Angeles,” said Food & Water Watch Researcher and Policy Advocate Elanor Starmer. “It wasn’t until 2007 that the Central Valley water board imposed any waste management requirements on dairies at all. Two years into the new program, we need to know whether it is reducing groundwater pollution.” … “

Read more from the Food & Water Watch by clicking here.

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