Last month, the Regional Water Board heard the most recent proposal for regulating polluted runoff stemming from vineyard properties within our region but deferred a tentative adoption vote to February 2025. During the six-hour hearing, Regional Water Board staff presented the latest updates to the Proposed Order, and dozens of public comments were heard, including those made by Russian Riverkeeper.
We continue to support the need for a strong order that is protective of our water quality for our most sensitive species, while also incentivizing the adoption of practices known to capture sediment on-site and prevent sediment-laden discharges from entering our impaired waterways. However, we do not believe the current proposal will achieve these goals in an effective and verifiable manner as the monitoring and reporting requirements are insufficient to demonstrate measures are doing what they are supposed to i.e., reduce sediment discharges and protect water quality for all beneficial uses.
Once we learn when the Proposed Vineyard Order will be back before the Regional Water Board, we will send an alert out here.
Past Articles Related to this Issue are below: