North Bay Business Journal

State water-quality regulators this afternoon announced the withdrawal of a proposed conditional waiver program for vineyards in the Napa River and Sonoma Creek watersheds from state-set limits on erosion and plans to regulate vineyard water runoff under more general requirements.

Proposed state regulations on North Coast vineyard erosion are moving toward draft rules to be considered for adoption in 2013. Through Jan. 2, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board staff will be taking comments on a draft conditional waiver of waste-discharge requirements for vineyard properties in the Napa River and Sonoma Creek watersheds and an associated draft document on environmental affects of the waiver program. Those drafts were released Nov. 16, and the board is set to consider them at a public hearing set for Feb. 13 in Oakland.

NORTH COAST — State water-quality regulators are developing new rules that would require North Coast agricultural property owners or operators to develop, follow and update ongoing, multiyear plans for controlling and reversing erosion into ecologically sensitive waterways.

SANTA ROSA — The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board announced the appointment of Matthew St. John, an 11-year staff member and head of logging and erosion regulation, as executive officer.

North Coast water-quality regulators plan to complete regulations for how dairies deal with manure to prevent contamination of waterways during rainstorms, but the industry in Marin and Sonoma counties has a three-decade head start thanks to a public-private self-monitoring program.

NORTH COAST – Regional regulations for control of rainwater-borne sediment and other listed pollutants from construction sites in the erosion-prone North Coast could be coming into closer alignment with state rules as both release new drafts of their governing policies.