Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Research And Bmps topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State Water Board expert panel pushes research and technical-assistance sections into draft report
Summary
At its Jan. 14 meeting, a State Water Resources Control Board agricultural expert panel agreed to consolidate research, outreach and technical-assistance recommendations into a standalone section and to expand best management practice guidance — including soil testing, irrigation scheduling, cover cropping and denitrification options — ahead of a public draft release.
The State Water Resources Control Board’s expert agricultural panel on Jan. 14 agreed to reorganize a draft report to highlight research needs and technical assistance alongside recommended best management practices for irrigation and nitrogen management.
Panelists said a separate research-and-outreach section would make recommendations more visible than leaving them buried in answers to individual charge questions, and would help regional boards and stakeholders find priorities for funding and implementation. “I think it could make sense to highlight technical assistance too,” said Ruth Dahlquist Willard, interim director of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at UC ANR, after panel members debated where to place guidance on soil testing, moisture sensors and split fertilizer applications.
Why it matters: Panelists said clearer organization will help regulators and coalitions move from high-level recommendations toward implementable steps — especially for small and diversified farms and growers who need more hands-on help. The draft list of practices discussed by the panel includes pre-season soil testing and in-season quick tests, irrigation scheduling (including crop-manager tools), improved irrigation-system efficiency (drip irrigation, automation), accounting for nitrate in irrigation water, cover cropping, enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, compost and other organic amendments, and targeted field-scale technologies such as denitrification bioreactors.
Panel members emphasized that many of those practices require additional context and references. “These best management practices… they need a little bit more explanation of what they are and how they benefit in reducing nitrate impacts to groundwater or surface water,” said Michael Khan, a Monterey County farm advisor who specializes in irrigation and water resource management.
Research vs. practice: The group agreed to move detailed research questions — for example, the effectiveness and magnitude of benefit from microbial inoculants, cover-crop species and mixed-species timing — into the new research section so the main question responses are easier to read. Panelists also called for a short library or appendix of supporting materials and presentations that informed the panel’s conclusions.
Next steps: Panel members assigned drafting teams: Hannah Waterhouse and Ngudu (Godou) Atume will draft the research, outreach and implementation needs section; Richard Smith and Ali Montazar will refine the best-management-practices material; Thomas Harder will consolidate modeling-related text into a separate modeling section. A revised draft is expected to be circulated to the panel by the end of the week and considered at the next work session.
What to watch: The panel plans to move the consolidated draft to a public comment period in February after the panel completes revisions and staff posts the notice; that public review will include at least one workshop in which commenters may present verbal input and dialogue with staff or panel members.
