You may have heard by now that the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board is requiring all agricultural operations within its jurisdiction to abide by their General Order #R9-2016-004. This order is for production agriculture only. If you have only horses or confined animals you can ignore this notice.
The Upper Santa Margarita Irrigated Lands Group is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was formed in 2010 that has been reactivated and approved for third party group status with the regional board. Previously USMILG conducted all of the testing and reporting for its members during the previous Agricultural Waiver #4. USMILG is aligned with the Riverside County Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the county and a Farm Bureau membership will be required to join USMILG. Our Board is made up of all long time Riverside County growers. Testing and administration is very expensive, however due to the large amount of people like you that joined USMILG previously those costs were kept to a minimum. USMILG members stretch from Winchester to De Luz all the way to Anza to cover the most acreage possible and keep costs low.
To enroll the first step is to join The Riverside County Farm Bureau. If you are a newcomer or left the group, that can be done online right here (click on Join Farm Bureau) and then send a check to USMILG for the enrollment fee to our current address at 33320 Temecula Pkwy. Temecula, CA 92592. If you are a current Riverside County Farm Bureau member please send us your membership number along with the enrollment fee at the same address. Clearly there will be additional fees as we move into the near future to cover administration, testing and acreage fees charged by the state.
The final two steps are to fill out a Notice of Intent with the San Diego Regional Board. That document can be found online at http://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/enoi/. This document goes directly to the regional board so make a copy of it and send it to the USMILG so we can get it in your file. The final step is to prepare a Water Quality Protection Plan for your ranch. We have included the pdf form that you can fill out and send to the USMILG to meet that requirement. Click here for PDF.
As you can imagine dealing with governmental agencies is never a pleasing proposition and this situation is no different. We hope to make the process a little less painful. We look forward to hearing from you and becoming part of our group.
If you have any additional questions and more information, please contact USMILG at https://www.usmilg.org/
