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Coalitions and third‑party groups describe data, outreach work and implementation challenges
Summary
Coalitions, third‑party implementers and consultants described progress on irrigated‑lands reporting, the heavy workload of cleaning inconsistent submissions, and limits to enforcing requirements for small, diversified farms. They urged clearer data standards and more resources for outreach and validation.
Third‑party coalitions, preservation groups and consultants told the panel they are collecting large volumes of irrigated‑lands data but face substantial data‑quality and outreach challenges that complicate statewide aggregation and enforcement.
Preservation Inc., a Central Coast coalition, and MLJ Environmental and other consultants presented their outreach methods: spreadsheet templates that mirror the State's GeoTracker forms, phone and in‑person help for older or non‑English‑speaking growers, and multi‑round follow up to validate outliers. Preservation Inc. said many early INP records contained calculation errors (for example reporting application rates in inconsistent units), and that outreach usually requires multiple contact attempts to reach 80–90% of members.
Why it matters: Staff and panelists agreed that cleaned, field‑level data and consistent naming and units are prerequisites for reliable analysis and possible numeric limits. Coalition presenters said they will continue cleaning records and deploying dashboards but asked the State Board for help standardizing reporting conventions across regions.
Key points - Several coalition presenters described different local reporting practices that yield inconsistent crop names, unit errors and missing acreage fields; coalitions have invested in cleaning and standardizing those feeds for state dashboards. - San Diego (Region 9) and other boards noted many small, diversified growers and container/greenhouse operations that present special reporting challenges; staff asked for flexible compliance pathways for those operations. - Preservation Inc. and consultant groups emphasized that high and low A‑minus‑R outliers are often data errors or farm‑specific circumstances (storm events, reclaimed water with high nitrate) that merit targeted outreach before enforcement.
Ending Coalitions committed to continue data cleaning and outreach; multiple presenters asked the State Board to publish field‑level datasets and consistent naming/units as soon as possible to support the panel's requested analyses.
