Monterey County officials say legislation that has been proposed to ban the use of water reclaimed from sewage for irrigating vegetable fields that could impact the state’s agricultural industry and its water supply.
Monterey County officials say legislation that has been proposed to ban the use of water reclaimed from sewage for irrigating vegetable fields that could impact the state’s agricultural industry and its water supply.
A report by Kevin Howe in the Monterey County Herald says State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, a former chairman of the Assembly Agricultural Committee, has called for laws governing crops and packaging that would ban the use of reclaimed sewage water in organic vegetable crops and possibly nonorganic crops.
The proposal comes on the heels of reports of E. coli-contaminated spinach in the Salinas Valley. Much of the irrigation water used on crops on the west end of the Salinas Valley has been reclaimed from sewage.