Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program

• San Joaquin County and Delta Water Quality Coalition
• East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition

Discharge from irrigated agriculture is listed as one of the major sources of impairments of surface waters in the Central Valley of California. Until recently, these nonpoint source inputs were unregulated due to the large number of dischargers and the difficulty in developing a monitoring framework to address the problem. Recently, the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board adopted a Conditional Waiver allowing growers to form coalitions for the purposes of monitoring and reporting to the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program.

MLJ-LLC contracts with two agricultural coalitions representing over 1.7 million acres of irrigated agriculture within the California Central Valley to ensure their compliance with the Central Valley Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program. Since 2004 Michael Johnson has worked with both Coalitions as their technical advisor to ensure that the monitoring and reporting programs conducted by each Coalition meet the requirements of the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program and protect water quality. Currently MLJ-LLC conducts monitoring for both Coalitions, reports results of water and sediment quality analyses to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, manages water and sediment quality data in SWAMP-comparable format, and represents the Coalitions in all discussions of technical issues.