California Adopts New Limits to Rein in Dairy Manure Pollution and Its ‘Outsized’ Groundwater Impacts
Cattle at a Porterville dairy farm in California’s Central Valley. Credit: David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images
Central Valley dairies are long overdue to face stricter regulations over their nitrate pollution, families and clean water advocates argue. Industry stakeholders and business owners worry about added costs and new requirements.
The California valley with the most dairy farms in the state will follow stricter water pollution requirements following years of advocacy and a marathon six-hour meeting this week.
The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously agreed to adopt the regulations under what several environmental groups call a long overdue dairy order.
Nitrogen from the manure dairies produce turns into excess nitrate in soil, waterways and groundwater, and can eventually contaminate drinking water.
Families and children in the Central Valley “are living in crisis,” said Leslie Martinez, of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability and Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio (Central Valley Defenders of Clean Air and Water), a group of San Joaquin Valley residents. 09-18-26