Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008

Water activists sue California over dairy rules

Tulare County group says regulations aren't enough.

Tulare County activists sued the state Friday, claiming that new rules for 1,600 Central Valley dairies will not prevent contamination from seeping into wells supplying poor, rural communities.

The rules need to go further, immediately requiring all dairies -- not just those that are new or expanding -- to monitor underground water, according to the suit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Activists are concerned about the tons of untreated animal waste that daily comes from dairies.

"We are not against dairies," said activist Juan Gomez of Orosi, which has several dairies in the area. "We need the jobs they provide. But we are against the contamination."

Activists filed the lawsuit against the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. It challenges a new dairy water permit system that the board approved last May.

The plaintiffs are the Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua, or AGUA, a Valley nonprofit coalition to protect water supplies, and the Environmental Law Foundation, a nonprofit legal watchdog in Oakland.

Kenneth Landau, assistant executive officer in the Sacramento office of the regional board, said he had not seen the lawsuit. But he defended the permit system, saying it allows authorities to evaluate each dairy and take measures to deal with potential problems.

Water monitoring for existing dairies will take place over a number of years as officials look at the potential problems of each operation, Landau said.

Industry representatives said the activist lawsuit will stall the toughest dairy rules in the country.

"It's truly unfortunate that these groups continue to divert public resources toward political grandstanding and away from clean water and public health," said William Van Dam, chairman of Community Alliance for Responsible Environmental Stewardship, representing dairies across the state.

But the activists said underground monitoring was not their only concern. They said there was no requirement for protective liners beneath lagoons where animal waste is flushed. A liner, however, can be required if state officials consider it necessary.

Activists also said they are concerned about dairy owners sending manure waste to other farms. The manure is used in fertilizing crops.

"There's no tracking, no accounting for it and how it is used on the ground," said lawyer Laurel Firestone, who represents the activists.

The manure is a source of nitrate contamination in underground water, which is a problem in the valley. Such contamination has been linked to cancer, pregnancy risks and a blood disorder called methemoglobinemia, also known as "blue-baby syndrome."

Dairy industry leaders and state officials have said it can be difficult to determine the origin of nitrate contamination. Nitrates also come from fertilizers, septic tanks, sewage plants and many other sources.

But Tulare County is California's most productive dairy county, with more than 800,000 dairy animals, activists said. Two of every five private wells tested by the state in the county have nitrate contamination.

Orosi residents routinely get warnings about high nitrate readings in their tap water, activists said.

They said the costs of the contamination are being borne by the state's poorest people -- farm laborers in rural areas, such as Orosi. Residents in the area often pay up to $60 a month for tap water they cannot drink. They must pay an additional $25 to $75 a month for bottled water.

"It's time to say enough to contamination," said Susana De Anda, coordinator of AGUA. "We are being denied the basic right to clean water."