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Agriculture groups urge delay on numeric limits; say data insufficient and local economics at stake
Summary
Agricultural representatives told the State Water Board expert panel on Aug. 8 that establishing numeric nitrogen limits now would be premature, arguing available data are concentrated in the Central Valley, smaller and disadvantaged farms need different reporting paths, and limits could have large regional economic impacts.
Agricultural interests spoke forcefully at the Aug. 8 meeting of the State Water Resources Control Board’s agricultural expert panel, urging caution before the board adopts numeric limits on nitrogen applications or discharges.
“We think that calling the expert panel at this juncture of the program is premature,” Tess Dunham, a water quality attorney representing a statewide coalition of agricultural groups, told the panel. She and other farm representatives said that data collection and reporting remain uneven across regions and that the Central Valley — which has the largest, most mature dataset — should not be treated as representative of the whole state.
Why it matters: Several members of the agricultural sector argued that numerical discharge limits could eliminate multicropping systems and cause major economic disruption in regions with specialty, labor‑intensive crops such as the Central Coast. They urged the panel to recommend targets used as…
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