Recommended Objectives 

Below is a link to the recommended objectives for our watershed management plan, which we will be discussing and possibly approving at our Watershed Council meeting this Thursday, December 13. The meeting will be held in the Topping Room of the EP Foster Library, 651 E. Main Street, Ventura, and will run from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Meeting agenda materials:
Agenda
Final Recommended Goals
Final Recommended Objectives
Guiding Values – Recommended Update

Another TMDL?!
New Draft TMDL for Pumping & Diversion Just Released
This just in: “The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting public comments on the draft Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for Ventura River Reaches 3 and 4. Ventura River Reaches 3 and 4 are on California’s list of polluted waters for pumping and water diversion related water quality impairments.”

“A Public Meeting for the Ventura River Reaches 3 and 4 TMDLs will be held on Monday, January 14, 2013 from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm at EPA Southern California Field Office, 600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1460, Los Angeles, CA 90017.”

Here is the Public Notice, which has information about the meeting and documents.
Here is the draft TMDL.

Shirley Birosik, of the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board, will provide a brief update about this at our meeting this Thursday, December 13.

New Report on Water Storage and Agriculture
Last month, the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply released a report entitled From Storage to Retention: Expanding California’s Options for Meeting Its Water Needs. The report encourages an expansion of approaches to storing water that increase supply reliability, and it emphasizes that California’s agricultural lands can play an important role in the storage infrastructure. The report states, “The value of working lands in helping to sequester water for later use while achieving many benefits, such as food security, flood management and habitat restoration, represents a critical missed opportunity for improving water security.”

If anyone gleans any ideas from this report, or has other ideas to offer for how we can expand water storage/retention using our agricultural lands, please let me know so we can add them to our project list for consideration.