Source: Western United Dairymen Weekly Update
Over half the dairymen in California’s Central Valley have signed up to monitor groundwater quality through the Central Valley Dairy Representative Monitoring Program (CVDRMP).
The nonprofit coalition was formed to address a 2007 requirement by the Regional Water Quality Control Board that all Central Valley dairies have groundwater monitoring wells. The program offers participants cost savings and reduced record keeping, as opposed to the cost of installing and sampling wells and reporting the results themselves. The estimated cost of installing a single well can run as high as $40,000 per dairy.
The CVDRMP is chaired by Tom Barcellos, a director of Western United Dairymen. A dairy’s membership in good standing in CVDRMP can substitute as a lower-cost alternative for the current requirement that each dairy install monitoring wells.
