This is just one post in the Delta Issues Category

Delta pollution and toxic agricultural runoff

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 30, 2007 at 11:27 am

Stockton’s Record.Net has a story this morning about the study regarding pollution in the Bay Delta area:

A new assessment of pollution in Central Valley waterways shows that pesticides, heavy metals, salt and bacteria remain widespread problems. The study is the first of its kind since farmers were made exempt in 2003 from individually reporting the quantities of pollution released from their lands.

That controversial program allows farmers to join coalitions that sample agricultural runoff and release the numbers to the state. This data, collected over a four-year period, is one basis for the state’s study, released earlier this month. A Stockton environmentalist who analyzed the numbers called them an “astonishing and depressing mosaic” affirming that farms should be regulated in the same way as any business or city that discharges pollutants.

“This report puts to rest the repeated claims by farmers that agricultural pollution is not a problem in the Central Valley,” said Bill Jennings, whose California Sportfishing Protection Alliance targeted the ag waiver in a lawsuit filed last month.

Besides water exports, toxins and invasive species are also suspected to be a factor in the decline of the Delta smelt.

To read the full text of the article from Stockton’s Record.Net, click here.

Here’s the same story as covered by the Central Valley Business Times, which features a link to a video of an interview with Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

July 30, 2007 · Filed Under Agriculture, Delta Issues, Other Delta Issues