Section 25209.11 Of Article 9.7. Integrated On-farm Drainage Management From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 20. >> Chapter 6.5. >> Article 9.7.
25209.11
. For purposes of this article, the following terms have
the following meanings:
(a) "Agricultural drainage water" means surface drainage water or
percolated irrigation water that is collected by subsurface drainage
tiles placed beneath an agricultural field.
(b) "On-farm" means land within the boundaries of a property or
geographically contiguous properties, owned or under the control of a
single owner or operator or a publicly organized land-based agency,
that is used for the commercial production of agricultural
commodities and that contains an integrated on-farm drainage
management system and a solar evaporator.
(c) "Integrated on-farm drainage management system" means a
facility for the on-farm management of agricultural drainage water
that does all of the following:
(1) Reduces levels of salt and selenium in soil by the application
of irrigation water to agricultural fields.
(2) Collects agricultural drainage water from irrigated fields and
sequentially reuses that water to irrigate successive crops until
the volume of residual agricultural drainage water is substantially
decreased and its salt content significantly increased.
(3) Discharges the residual agricultural drainage water to an
on-farm solar evaporator for evaporation and appropriate salt
management.
(4) Eliminates discharge of agricultural drainage water to
evaporation ponds and outside the boundaries of the property or
properties that produces the agricultural drainage water and that is
served by the integrated on-farm drainage management system and the
solar evaporator.
(d) "Publicly organized land-based agency" means a resource
conservation district, as described in Division 9 (commencing with
Section 9001) of the Public Resources Code, an irrigation district,
as described in Division 11 (commencing with Section 20500) of the
Water Code, any other district established pursuant to the Water Code
whose operations may include managing agricultural irrigation or
drainage, or a joint powers authority formed for the purpose of
managing agricultural drainage or salt.
(e) "Regional board" means a California regional water quality
control board.
(f) "Solar evaporator" means an on-farm area of land and its
associated equipment that meets all of the following conditions:
(1) It is designed and operated to manage agricultural drainage
water discharged from the integrated on-farm drainage management
system.
(2) The area of the land that makes up the solar evaporator is
equal to, or less than, 2 percent of the area of the land that is
managed by the integrated on-farm drainage management system.
(3) Agricultural drainage water from the integrated on-farm
drainage management system is discharged to the solar evaporator by
timed sprinklers or other equipment that allows the discharge rate to
be set and adjusted as necessary to avoid standing water within the
solar evaporator or, if a water catchment basin is part of the solar
evaporator, within that portion of the solar evaporator that is
outside the basin.
(4) The combination of the rate of discharge of agricultural
drainage water to the solar evaporator and subsurface tile drainage
under the solar evaporator provides adequate assurance that
constituents in the agricultural drainage water will not migrate from
the solar evaporator into the vadose zone or waters of the state in
concentrations that pollute or threaten to pollute the waters of the
state.
(g) "State board" means the State Water Resources Control Board.
(h) "Water catchment basin" means an area within the boundaries of
a solar evaporator that is designated to receive and hold any water
that might otherwise be standing water within the solar evaporator.
The entire area of a water catchment basin shall be permanently and
continuously covered with netting, or otherwise designed,
constructed, and operated to prevent access by avian wildlife to
standing water within the basin.