Sonoma, Mendocino county grape growers battling new rules designed to reduce sediment, pesticides in local waterways
A new program targeting 1,500 commercial grape growers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties and designed to improve water quality in local creeks and rivers is drawing criticism from members of the agricultural community.
The draft rules include reporting requirements, annual fees, well and groundwater monitoring, ground cover requirements and restrictions on wintertime operations that growers deem excessive.
Vineyard operators and agricultural representatives say the costs and mandates are overkill for an industry that is already working to reduce sediment runoff into waterways and protect fish habitats.
Small growers are especially likely to suffer because “their margins are really small, and the proposed permit is going to create costs that are significant to them,” said Robin Bartholow, deputy executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.
But staff of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board say the soil disturbance and chemical use in many vineyards, as well as potential disruption of riparian plants needed to shade fish habitat, can degrade water quality in creeks and rivers.
They say measures are needed to ensure current practices are sufficient to protect watersheds already impaired by human activity and to determine where more effort is needed.
“In general, the wine industry in this region really prides itself on sustainable practices, and its widespread enrollment in these (voluntary) programs,” said Brenna Sullivan, an engineering geologist with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is developing the rules.
”But we also wanted a program that would be able to effectively track if it’s working,“ Sullivan said. ”We wanted an order that assumes that everyone is doing the right thing and doing what they say they’re doing.“
The North Coast water board, one of nine regional boards in California, extends from Santa Rosa to the Oregon border. It is obligated under state and federal law to regulate, maintain and restore water quality in the region’s waterways.
That’s especially true for waterways listed as impaired under the federal Clean Waters Act.
Both the Navarro River watershed in Mendocino County and the Russian River watershed are listed as impaired for sediment and siltation, in part due to contributions from agriculture. So is the Gualala River, which is among the other watersheds where the rules will apply. Also included are the Big River and Garcia River watersheds, both in Mendocino County.
All but about 1.5% of the estimated 65,000 acres of vineyard in the North Coast region are in those watersheds, according to the regional board.
Vineyards occupy about 2% of the Navarro watershed, while in the Russian River, about 5% of the watershed is planted in grapes, though “numerous” sub-watersheds have vineyard density as high as 75%, the water board says.
About 80% of commercial vineyards on the North Coast already have conservation practices in place under voluntary sustainability programs, the board said.
“They won’t have to do a lot of extra, in terms of their management practices,” said Valerie Quinto, executive officer of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
But the state mandates a “feedback mechanism” through which their success can be evaluated and, potentially, used to drive improvement, she said. Thus, periodic water monitoring is necessarily part of the program.
That includes stormwater monitoring at sites where runoff leaves a vineyard property, which would require testing of samples from every drainage site and structure on a vineyard every five years, Quinto said. Additional testing and pursuit of a remedy would be required if pesticide and sediment are above set thresholds.
Two sites within the Russian River and one in the Navarro River also would be used to monitor levels representative for the area, Sullivan said.
The 171-page draft includes allowances for vineyard operators to lean on approved third parties to enroll and implement requirements, as well as collect and pay fees to the state, as a means of reducing costs and individual effort.
A flat, 50-acre vineyard with limited drainage or discharge locations, no wells, streamside areas or agricultural roads, might cost $1,975 a year, under the rules, while the same operator enrolled in a third-party program might pay $467.50.
A 200-acre hillside vineyard with multiple drainage structures, extensive streamside areas, agricultural roads that need improvement and only minimum management practices, might face more than $56,000 in one-time costs but pay $2,100 annually through a third-party, versus $8,107 as an individual.
