By Jane Sooby
The State Water Resources Control Board has announced that a public workshop will be held April 10 from 2-6 pm at the California Environmental Protection Agency office in Sacramento and online to present the Second Agricultural Expert Panel’s draft report and to gather oral comment on it. Commenters need to pre-register by April 6; for more details on how to participate, view the meeting announcement here (en español).
The draft report itself has not yet been released but is expected to be available by March 30, 2026 for a 30-day public comment period. Read a sneak preview of the report based on an earlier draft here. A link to the draft report will be posted to the expert panel’s website; printed copies also may be requested by emailing DWQ-ILRP@waterboards.ca.gov.
The expert panel was convened in August 2025 to advise the State Water Board on reducing nitrogen (N) contamination of groundwater through California’s Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program. Specifically, the State Water Board declared its intent to convene the expert panel in its remand order rejecting elements of the Central Coast Regional Water Board’s 2021 Ag Order 4.0.
Lingering Questions Addressed at March 11 Working Group Meeting
The expert panel met March 11 for its final working group meeting before the draft report is released. During this meeting, expert panel members continued to work through their recommendations, devoting most of their time to discussing whether to set N application or discharge targets and limits. This has been a hot-button topic throughout the expert panel’s deliberations, with the agriculture industry opposing any limits and environmental justice advocates calling for immediate mandatory limits on N fertilizer applications to protect communities from further groundwater contamination.
Should the Panel Recommend N Discharge/Application Targets or Limits?
In its remand order, the State Water Board specifically rejected the schedule established by the Central Coast region’s Ag Order 4.0 for growers to achieve N application and discharge targets and limits. Perhaps most controversially, Ag Order 4.0 established N fertilizer application limits by crop that were to go into effect by 2025.
Ag Order 4.0 also set initial N discharge targets, ratcheting these down over a period of decades to what the regional board determined would be water quality protective N discharge limits as shown in the following table.
Compliance Dates for Nitrogen Discharge Targets and Limits in Central Coast Region’s Ag Order 4.0 (adapted from Ag Order 4.0 Table C. 1-3.)
| lb N/acre/year | Compliance date | |
| Target | 500 | 12/31/2023 |
| Target | 400 | 12/31/2025 |
| Limit | 300 | 12/31/2027 |
| Limit | 200 | 12/31/2031 |
| Limit | 150 | 12/31/2036 |
| Limit | 100 | 12/31/2041 |
| Limit | 50 | 12/31/2051 |
Panelist Richard Smith walked the group through his idea that, in contrast to the approach taken in Ag Order 4.0, initial limits could be set at the high end of N discharges, which can already be accomplished by 80% or more of growers in the region, and that lower levels of N discharge be considered targets.
“If they’re going to set limits,” stated Smith, “it makes more sense to have them at the higher range and, as they step down, those should be targets with assistance offered to help growers achieve those lower levels.”
Panelist Michael Cahn further clarified that this idea is in response to the question of whether the expert panel should recommend a “backstop” amount of N that is considered excessive and thus subject to a regulatory limit. Panelist Ngodoo Atume suggested that the panel should consider the needs of the communities impacted by N-contaminated groundwater as well as the agronomic needs of growers. Still, panelist Thomas Harter stated, “We want to be careful not to say a limit must be set” and instead to say a limit could be set.
As the panelists worked on the logic and wording of their recommendations, they agreed that any targets or limits should be set by regional water boards.
At the end of their 2½ hour long discussion, no panelists objected to the draft report being released for public comment.
Anticipated Final Timeline
- March 30: Release of draft report
- April 10: Staff Workshop to present draft report and receive public comment
- April 30: Deadline for public comment
- Late May: One or two final working group meetings
- Early June: final plenary meeting; presentation and approval of final report by expert panel
- June 16: presentation of final report by expert panel chair Daniel Geisseler to the State Water Board
