Rice Pesticides Program
California rice has been a leader in improving water quality for the last 20 years by innovatively working with programs that decrease concentrations of select pesticides in the surface water of the rice-growing regions.
With approximately 500,000 acres of rice grown annually north of Sacramento, most emphasis has been on the Sacramento River Basin. The Department of Pesticide Regulation managed the Rice Pesticides Program with the rice industry contributing half the expenses for sampling and monitoring until 2003, when the California Rice Commission assumed full program responsibility for monitoring, sampling, analysis, reporting and recommendations. The Rice Pesticides Program once included five pesticides and is currently specific to the herbicide thiobencarb, known by the common trade names of Abolish and Bolero.
History
The rice industry began working on water quality issues in 1980. In 1983, the rice industry implemented best management practices to hold water in the fields until the pesticides degrade to an acceptable level in receiving waters. In 1990, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (CVRWQCB), Water Quality Control Plan (Basin Plan) for the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Basins, established performance goals for specific rice pesticides at a level by which enforcement and compliance were measured through a monitoring program.
Objective
The rice industry continues to be proactive with the growers implementing best management practices, research from the University of California, relationships with the Department of Pesticide Regulation and the Regional Water Quality Control Board and enforcement and compliance by the county agricultural commissioners. These collaborative activities have reduced the rice pesticide load in the river by 99 percent.
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