Horse owners form group to find solutions to waste problem
March 7, 2013
Kit Stolz, OVN correspondent
Horse and livestock owners in the Ojai Valley have been asked to clean up their act — their manure — to a greater extent than any other horse owners in the area.
To reduce nutrient pollution that encourages the growth of algae, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB) has told local horse owners that they must keep 99 percent of all manure from reaching the watershed. This regulation will go into effect within the next 18 months.
“This is the first time that the Regional Board has asked something like this of any horse owners in Ventura County,” said Lynn Jensen, executive director of the Ventura County Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business, which often deals with agricultural issues in the county. “We (in Ojai) are the test case.”
Horse owners in the valley have taken up the challenge, and are working together to find ways to meet the new regulatory standards. In the last six months, a group of horse owners have formed the Horse and Livestock Watershed Alliance and are working with experts at the county’s Resource Conservation District (RCD) on plans to handle manure in a new way.
“These regulations were initiated by a lawsuit from an environmental coalition led by Heal the Bay,” said Alan Connell, director of the alliance. “The Water Board was sued for not doing their job under the Clean Water Act and getting (pollution regulations) written. That lawsuit was brought in 1999, and these new standards were just instituted, to take effect this month. It’s still our goal to be good stewards of the river, and to maintain our lifestyle with horses. That’s important to us.”
For engineer Phil Sherman, who owns two horses and a donkey, but has pioneered a plan to handle horse waste and bedding with a new biodigester, the short-term answer lies in working with the young experts at the RCD. Sherman and several other horse owners doubt the idea of a manure biodigester will be financially viable unless the state or federal government steps in with big grants, but think that they can work with the experts at the RCD to solve the problem with simpler low-technology solutions.
The RCD is a nonprofit agency first brought into being by Congress in the Dust Bowl era, when poor farming techniques and widespread drought led to a huge loss of valuable farmland.
“If each individual horse owner or each individual ranch has to deal with the Regional Board on their own, these regulations could become onerous,” Sherman told a group of about 20 horse owners in a meeting at the Little House Wednesday night. “But if you join our organization, and meet the requirements of the organization, then you will be exempt from any of the other requirements the Board comes up with. That’s what happened with irrigated agriculture (in Ventura County), and there’s no reason it can’t happen this way with horse and livestock owners.”
Sonya Webb, district engineer for the RCD, said that to reduce farmland run-off containing pesticides and other pollutants, the RCD, the Farm Bureau and other groups helped bring together a self-regulating body called the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Lands Group (VCAILG). This group helped farmers meet the conditions of a “conditional waiver” from LARWQCB, which required agricultural producers to measure and control discharges from their lands for pollutants, nutrients and stormwater.
In 2005, the LARWQCB issued a conditional waiver, clarifying what standards would apply to agricultural run-off. In 2006, it approved a plan allowing VCAILG to act as a single discharger, for the purposes of a waiver.
The regulators at LARWQCB have encouraged the creation of a similar group for horse owners in Ojai.
“Instead of making each horse owner apply for an expensive permit, and undergo all the monitoring that goes with that permit, the Regional Board is going to say that if you join the (horse owners) group, and abide by these best management practices that we have worked out with them, we will issue a conditional waiver, and work with the group as a whole,” said Webb. “That’s the fist step.”
At the meeting Wednesday evening, horse owners discussed possible measures to control discharge of waste from horse manure, including storage in concrete bunkers with roofs, to prevent run-off.
To Webb and Katie Haldeman, who works as an environmental scientist at the RCD, the objective is to provide examples of how good practices at farms and ranches can prevent pollution problems. They say they can help horse owners by walking their property, preparing soil reports and offering design advice, and they hope to have some grant money available to help the horse owners association in the coming year.
For information on the horse owners alliance and details on how to join, contact Connell, at 290-5725, or Leigh Hyndman, at (310) 849-1625.
Persimmon hill has a couple folks where the manure sits around, it smells, it breeds insects, horseflies galore, not very attractive or enjoyable frankly.
RE anotheroldOjai PEE or urine is not included in the new regulatory standards at this time. For those who are not on board with this issue you are welcome to join the group and be part of the solution. We need to form this issue in a best management direction. WE can’t wait and do nothing and have some people who do not live here who base their scientifc studies on areas that are not the Same as Ojai telling us how we are going to comply or be fined. Better to be informed . As a group we are stronger. The Rual lifestyle is what makes Ojai special. The manure that is created can and will be used to grow food here.
Really, thnx for the reply. Thats a lot easier, in fact most horse owners muck every few days anyway.
re another one bites the dust Ojai has gained the honor of being the test city for this. Dont worry its going to be implemented everywhere there is a water way that leads into the drinking water. Meaning no one will be exempt except the oil companies who are doing the fracking. Seems to me this is way more toxic to the environment and all living creatures. The plan for Ojai stops at the waste water treatment plant. The rest of the river that makes it way to the ocean is not covered. Funny that area is where they as in The Oil companies are fracking. Wasnt this law suite brought on by HEAL THE BAY? Where the water is flowing after it leaves Ojai is going right on past this fracking operation that now dumps right into the Ocean. Hows that for HEALING THE BAY!!!!!!!
ok so you have to alow them on to your property to monitor it, your livestock because thats what a horse is. This going to get most americans pretty irrate. So they can count and test your soil. But no other city has to deal with this. Right.
What a waste of time and resources.
The article doesnt make clear if waste refers to just manure or urine as well. How feasible would it be to expect owners to capture every horses pee? How is this going to impact the horse rescue program and placing rehabiliated horses and property values as some people who might want to buy here for the trails are scared off by how expensive and onerous it is to keep such animals?
I think we have a way bigger issue coming our way that will impact our ground water in this valley. “Underground oilfield waste facility, more wells planned for Upper Ojai/Santa Paula area”