Section 25209.12 Of Article 9.7. Integrated On-farm Drainage Management From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 20. >> Chapter 6.5. >> Article 9.7.
25209.12
. The state board, in consultation, as necessary, with
other appropriate state agencies, shall adopt or amend emergency
regulations that establish minimum requirements for the design,
construction, operation, and closure of a solar evaporator. The
regulations shall include, but are not limited to, requirements to
ensure all of the following:
(a) The operation of a solar evaporator does not result in a
discharge of on-farm agricultural drainage water outside the
boundaries of the area of land that makes up the solar evaporator.
(b) (1) The solar evaporator is designed, constructed, and
operated so that, under reasonably forseeable operating conditions,
the discharge of agricultural water to the solar evaporator does not
result in standing water or drift of salt spray, mist, or particles
outside the boundaries of the solar evaporator to the extent that
drift constitutes a nuisance condition.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a solar evaporator may be
designed, constructed, and operated to accommodate standing water, if
it includes a water catchment basin.
(3) The board may specify those conditions under which a solar
evaporator is required to include a water catchment basin to prevent
standing water that would otherwise occur within the solar
evaporator.
(c) Avian wildlife is adequately protected. In adopting
regulations pursuant to this subdivision, the state board shall do
the following:
(1) Consider and, to the extent feasible, incorporate best
management practices recommended or adopted by the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service.
(2) Establish guidelines for the authorized inspection of a solar
evaporator by the regional board pursuant to Section 25209.15. The
guidelines shall include technical advice developed in consultation
with the Department of Fish and Game and the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service that may be used by regional board personnel to
identify observed conditions relating to the operation of a solar
evaporator that indicate an unreasonable threat to avian wildlife.
(d) Constituents in agricultural drainage water discharged to the
solar evaporator will not migrate from the solar evaporator into the
vadose zone or the waters of the state in concentrations that pollute
or threaten to pollute the waters of the state.
(e) Adequate groundwater monitoring and recordkeeping is performed
to ensure compliance with this article.
(f) Salt isolated in a solar evaporator shall be managed in
accordance with all applicable laws and shall eventually be harvested
and sold for commercial purposes, used for beneficial purposes, or
stored or disposed in a facility authorized to accept that waste
pursuant to this chapter or Division 30 (commencing with Section
40000) of the Public Resources Code.