If the regional water control board were to take action, it wouldn't be the first time that farmers faced pesticide controls. Starting in the 1980s, rice growers in the Sacramento Valley were forced to store irrigation water longer on their fields to prevent herbicides from tainting Sacramento's water supply. Because of those measures and others, rice farmers have reduced their pesticide discharges more than 98 percent, Westcot said. It hasn't come cheap. But purely from an environmental standpoint, it has worked, and we are very proud of that.
Farmers already have to deal with plenty of regulations.
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