California Court of Appeal sides with farmers in precedential water quality cases

In a legal win for California farmers, a state appeals court rejected all arguments brought by environmental groups and sided with the California State Water Resources Control Board, the California Farm Bureau and others related to the Central Valley’s Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program.

In its March 17 decision, the Third District Court of Appeal addressed three cases brought by environmental plaintiffs against the California State Water Resources Control Board in which the groups challenged the adoption of general waste discharge requirements for growers within the Eastern San Joaquin Watershed.

“The Court of Appeal’s landmark decision supports reasonableness and balancing in protecting water quality, while also maintaining our food supply and the economic viability of agriculture,” said California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson. “The court’s decision is precedential and applies to irrigated lands regulatory programs throughout the state.”

Johansson added, “The decision upholds farmer anonymity for nitrogen application data, the use of township-level nitrate data and surface water representative monitoring.”

Farm Bureau was represented in the case by Senior Counsel Kari Fisher and joined by fellow agricultural intervenors/respondents represented by Tess Dunham of Kahn, Soares & Conway and Jennifer Spaletta of Spaletta Law.

Access the Court of Appeal decision here.

The California Farm Bureau works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of nearly 29,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of 5.3 million Farm Bureau members.