Supervisors authorize grant acceptance for Santa Margarita Watershed stability

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors authorized the acceptance of a State Water Resources Control Board grant to assess and implement best management practices which will reduce the discharge of nutrients in the Santa Margarita River.

The supervisors’ December 6 approval adopts the resolution authorizing acceptance of the Agricultural Water Quality Grant Program funding, authorizes an agreement between the county’s Department of Public Works and the State Water Resources Control Board, appropriates the funding into the Santa Margarita Nutrient Monitoring and Reduction Program, and authorizes the execution of professional services contracts to develop and implement a water quality improvement program.

The state’s voters have approved several water quality bond issuances, including Proposition 40 in March 2002 and Proposition 50 in November 2002. In February 2006 the Department of Public Works, which handles watershed protection programs for the county, submitted a first-round grant application for consolidated Proposition 40 and Proposition 50 grants to assess and implement best management practices for nutrient reduction in the Santa Margarita River. In June 2006 DPW was invited to submit a second and final round application, and on October 11 DPW was notified of the State Water Resources Control Board’s intent to fund the submitted project proposal.

The project will investigate the effectiveness of various technical methods to reduce nutrient presence and remove nutrients from runoff. The county is providing a $200,000 match, which includes $45,000 of in-kind staff service time, $95,000 of existing equipment and service contracts, and $60,000 from a Rainbow Creek Nutrient Reduction grant funded by Section 319(h) of the Federal Clean Water Act. The Rainbow Creek grant was awarded to the county in March 2004 and is being used to evaluate and demonstrate the use of best management practices by nurseries and other agricultural operations within the Rainbow Creek portion of the Santa Margarita River Watershed, and that project includes the development of a nutrient reduction management plan which will focus on the total maximum daily load for Rainbow Creek. Because the Rainbow Creek project has applications for the entire Santa Margarita River Watershed, portions of that work can be permitted as a local match for the state grant.

The county will work with San Diego State University, the University of California Cooperative Extension, the University of California, Riverside, the Mission Resource Conservation District, and other stakeholders to implement the best management practices for the Santa Margarita River. Nurseries and other agricultural operations are a major source of nutrient contamination of the watershed, which includes five water bodies listed in Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. The best management practices demonstration would include optimizing irrigation and fertilization practices and the use of buffer strips to reduce nutrient loads. The results and design parameters for the best management practices will be made available to local growers through a technology transfer program, and the funding will also allow for demonstration field trips and hands-on workshops for local growers.