The venue for the hearing was the Elk's Club in San Luis Obispo, California. The meeting was packed with standing room-only around the edges of the room. The parking lot looked like a herd of 4WD white pickups had been drawn to the site by a giant magnet.
The meeting included testimony from several public interest groups like Surfrider Foundation and others. The rural community of San Jerardo Cooperative summarized their situation with a water well that is contaminated with nitrates. The San Jerardo Coop has received a grant to install a new well using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Some obvious questions were not asked by the sitting board members, like the size of the cooperative's property (33 acres) and the distance between their septic system and the existing (contaminated) wells. The speaker seemed to focus on the neighboring farm operations without addressing the cooperative's share of the responsibility for environmental quality.
Several farming groups and individual farmers presented testimony regarding the proposed changes to the agricultural waiver program. One of the most compelling statements was presented by David Costa of Costa Family Farms based on Monterey County. Mr. Costa's presentation was just the plain simple facts about the costs and time needed to comply with the changes proposed by the RWQCB's staff.
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