California’s water board wants broad authority to regulate the grazing of livestock.
In an effort dubbed the Grazing Regulatory Action Project — “GRAP” — the State Water Resources Control Board aims to develop statewide regulation to protect uses of surface and groundwater, and address environmental impacts as potential results of grazing on both public land and private property.
“We’re concerned about the environmental damage that can be done by livestock grazing,” said a spokesperson with the State Water Resources Control Board, which respresents nine regional water boards across California, in a statement Jan. 27 to BenitoLink. “We also recognize that there are a lot of positive impacts to livestock grazing. We just want to address some of the problems that can occur.”
San Benito County’s water district and planning commission did not provide comments in response to requests by BenitoLink. A call to the planning commission sought detail on livestock grazing operations.
In a separate statement, the state’s water board said that despite many environmental benefits of grazing, the habit of livestock could result in “non-point source” discharges that indirectly reach water bodies: “The potential impacts to water quality from grazing include sediment loading and the introduction of bacteria and nutrients to streams and wetlands, and physical alteration of the land that can harm habitat and wildlife in and around streams and wetlands.”
Non-point source pollution, according to the California Coastal Commission, spreads an array of natural and artificial pollutants, and implicates many sources such as farmlands, forests, streets, pets, humans, gardens and golf courses in runoffs of rainfall and snowmelt.
Freshwater officials have no proposal on the table, according to the spokesperson. They seek input from stakeholders at a meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 28 in Bishop. Stakeholders who wish to attend the meeting can email a note to DWQ-GRAP@waterboards.ca.gov, and include their names and affiliations to confirm their arrangements. In the event the meeting is full, according to the water board, officials will schedule a second meeting from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
Calls by freshwater officials for a statewide overseer of livestock grazing have spooked some of the stakeholders, including private landowners and county government officials.
John Eade, a longtime resident of San Benito County, pointed to natural occurrences that potentially could contribute to non-point source pollution.
“Most of California’s western watersheds are impacted by the San Andreas Rift Zone that runs from Marin County to the United States-Mexico border,” said Eade in a statement Tuesday to BenitoLink. “Literally billions of tons of earth are disturbed by the fault, and many creeks and rivers in San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties are impacted by this sedimentation. Some streams in these areas run 20 percent silt from the rift zone during major rain events.”
In a letter dated Jan. 13 by Lorelei Oviatt, the director of Kern County’s Planning and Community Development Department told a regional water official that GRAP looked like an attempt to “extend Water Board jurisdiction onto private lands” without the cooperation of county government, a local regulator.
“The far-reaching consequences of such an extensive effort on our ranching operations, including current Williamson Act contracts, appear to have not been taken into account when launching this program,” claimed Oviatt. “Even a cursory evaluation of the challenges of such a program should have resulted in a determination that a statewide regulatory project is neither necessary or even proper on private property.”