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From the Ventura County-Star – 10/19/05
By Robert Roy and Rex Laird, co-chairmen of Ventura County Agricultural Water Quality Coalition
Re: James Stahl's Oct. 17 commentary, "Chloride issue needs more study; hasty solution
irresponsible":
Who pays and when? That seems to be the core issue that comes through in Stahl's commentary in
response to the Ventura County Agricultural Water Quality Coalition's position that the upstream
discharge of chloride into the Santa Clara River should be controlled as soon as possible.
In the commentary, the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County (which own and operate two
upstream sewage plants discharging to the Santa Clara River) have clearly stated their position and
appears it intends to pass the costs for its pollution to Ventura County growers for as long as possible.
Studying a problem while one continues to cause a problem is a time-honored strategy to avoid
responsibility for polluting the environment. Rivers are convenient for waste discharge because the
pollution moves downstream often into another political jurisdiction, perhaps another state.
Those who rely on that water must live with whatever flows downstream. If the chloride content is too
high to use for irrigation, the grower is out of luck.
The Sanitation Districts want to conduct studies that will delay them being required to install pollution
controls.
However, the results of the first study in a process approved by the Regional Water Quality Control
Board are in, and the results reaffirm what we knew all along -- irrigating crops with water high in
chloride is not a good idea.
Now that we have that settled, it's time for another study and more delay. We think not. Instead, it is
time to move forward to control a source of pollution that threatens to destroy an entire industry.
We agree that solving an environmental problem can be costly. So can the loss of an agricultural
economy that generates more than $700 million annually in crop revenue. The argument comes down
to placing Ventura County agriculture at great potential risk while allowing Santa Clarita ratepayers to
avoid paying to clean up their sewage.
Limiting the use of new water softeners has helped but it has not solved the problem. To us, the
Sanitation Districts appear to want Ventura County growers to be the canaries in the mine -- when our
crops wither away, only then will the problem be recognized. Until then, keep adding millions of
pounds of chloride to the watershed year after year.
It is not supposed to work this way. The Clean Water Act clearly requires that polluters need to control
their wastes to protect downstream users. A valuable water resource is not to be degraded to benefit
a single discharger or community.
The fact is that this is the law -- and Ventura County growers are only asking that the law be followed.