As anticipated, the State Water Resources Control Board has approved yet another round of fee increases to finance the rapidly growing agency. In January fees for waste discharge will rise 8.5%, for confined animals by 6.2% and for irrigated lands by 5.8%. Water rights fees will increase a modest 3% for each acre-foot.
Advocates for farms and water districts unsuccessfully pled with lawmakers this session to use taxpayer dollars to finance a portion of the regulatory programs aimed at general public benefits. Bob Gore, on behalf of several of those organizations, warned of more costs ahead. Lawmakers, for example, shelved two controversial proposals to reform water rights and plan to return to them in January.
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Though the price of milk has remained essentially the same since 2012, fees on dairies have risen 155%, according to J.P. Cativiela, who directs regulatory affairs at Dairy Cares. And the water board is not in a bubble. Farmers in the Chowchilla Management Zone paid 40% more in fees to comply with the nitrate control program.
One pistachio processor has faced a 65% increase in waste discharge fees, explained Roger Isom, president and CEO of the Western Agricultural Processors Association. Another facility pays $89,000 annually in fees, with further compliance costs tacked on. The discharge fees are tenfold greater than all other regulatory costs combined.
“It’s not sustainable,” said Isom. “We simply can’t do it.”
