Down the Drain: State regulators tell judge to treat county water agency as a polluter.

While this court case has dragged on, four winter rainy seasons have flushed runoff down streambeds and riverbeds all over the Central Coast. 

Finally, more than four years after the nonprofit Monterey Coastkeeper sued the Monterey County Water Resources Agency (MCWRA), a court decision is expected in February.

The question Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills will rule on is essentially this: Is the county water agency responsible for cleaning up the polluted Salinas Valley waters that flow out to Monterey Bay? 

The long-awaited answer, from Ken Harris, executive director of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, is, in short, yes. 

"[We have] determined that MCWRA is a waste discharger and must file a report of waste discharge…for its activities in and around the Reclamation Ditch and Blanco Drain watersheds," Harris wrote in a Jan. 7 letter to Wills. A copy of that letter was obtained by the Weekly. 

In its lawsuit, Monterey Coastkeeper argues that the county agency should be treated as a "waste discharger," meaning the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board could set water quality standards for factors like pesticides, nitrates and dissolved oxygen in the waters that flow out of the lower Salinas River watershed. 

If the water is more polluted than the Water Quality Control Board's standards, MCWRA would be on the hook to clean it up. 

On Dec. 8, Judge Wills asked water board officials for their opinion, prompting Harris to make a determination. 

Attorneys representing MCWRA have argued in court that the agency isn't actually a polluter; while staff members do maintenance work along channels, it's not their fault if polluted waters flow through waterways that they maintain. 

But the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board disagrees. 

Wills will take that opinion into consideration when he finally rules on the case, likely in February. 

Though the court decision is still pending, Harris' opinion leaves Monterey Coastkeeper Executive Director Steve Shimek feeling optimistic. 

"This creates hope that we can resolve one of the biggest pollution issues in Monterey County," he says. "We can move toward treating some of that water that is in what are basically sewage systems for the lower Salinas Valley."

County attorneys and MCWRA officials were not immediately available for comment Monday. 

Meanwhile, in a separate battle that's dragged on in court, plaintiff Monterey Coastkeeper hopes for a related victory.

The water quality control board has toughened standards for farms, considering them polluters due to the effects of pesticide and fertilizers.

A decision is expected on that case, concerning the water board's rules (known as the "ag waiver") is expected in May. 

Those rules affect the upstream practices that pollute the water that later flows into MCWRA-maintained channels. Shimek's group has targeted both the upstream and downstream standards in hopes of significantly cleaning up the watershed. 

"We believe the water is so polluted you need both source control [through regulating farmers] and treatment [downstream by MCWRA]," Shimek says.