Central Valley Salts update: regional boards, management zones and NGOs outline drinking-water, salt and nitrate next steps

Central Valley regulators, management-zone representatives and environmental justice groups gave a joint update on Oct. 21 on the Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term Sustainability (CV‑SALTS) program, the basin‑scale effort to manage salt and nitrate in groundwater and protect drinking water.

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Central Valley Water Board) said the salt-control program is in Phase 1, supporting a prioritization and optimization (P&O) study to identify where salt‑management projects will be required; staff and the Central Valley Salinity Coalition presented early results from two archetype areas. For nitrates, the board and management zones reviewed implementation of early-action drinking-water programs, monitoring and deadlines for management zone implementation plans (MZIPs).

Why it matters: Salt and nitrate accumulation in Central Valley groundwater threaten drinking water, crop viability and ecosystem health. The CV‑SALTS Basin Plan Amendment (adopted by the Central Valley board in 2018 and partially approved by the State Water Board in 2019) created an implementation framework that now moves from planning and enrollment into targeted monitoring, pilot projects and permit-level actions.

Salt-control work: P&O study, archetypes and next steps Rachel Gray of the Central Valley Salinity Coalition said the P&O study is in year four. The study uses watershed and groundwater tools to define salinity planning targets for “applied water quality” — the blended water used for irrigation and drinking in local systems — and to identify areas likely to exceed those targets under future conditions.

Gray presented preliminary, local-area “archetype” analyses in the Delta…