The state board, in consultation, as necessary, with other appropriate state agencies, shall adopt or amend emergency regulations that establish minimum requirements for the design, construction, operation, and closure of a solar evaporator. The regulations shall include, but are not limited to, requirements to ensure all of the following:
(a) The operation of a solar evaporator does not result in a discharge of on-farm agricultural drainage water outside the boundaries of the area of land that makes up the solar evaporator.
(b) (1) The solar evaporator is designed, constructed, and operated so that, under reasonably forseeable operating conditions, the discharge of agricultural water to the solar evaporator does not result in standing water or drift of salt spray, mist, or particles outside the boundaries of the solar evaporator to the extent that drift constitutes a nuisance condition.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a solar evaporator may be designed, constructed, and operated to accommodate standing water, if it includes a water catchment basin.
(3) The board may specify those conditions under which a solar evaporator is required to include a water catchment basin to prevent standing water that would otherwise occur within the solar evaporator.
(c) Avian wildlife is adequately protected. In adopting regulations pursuant to this subdivision, the state board shall do the following:
(1) Consider and, to the extent feasible, incorporate best management practices recommended or adopted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
(2) Establish guidelines for the authorized inspection of a solar evaporator by the regional board pursuant to Section 25209.15. The guidelines shall include technical advice developed in consultation with the Department of Fish and Game and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that may be used by regional board personnel to identify observed conditions relating to the operation of a solar evaporator that indicate an unreasonable threat to avian wildlife.
(d) Constituents in agricultural drainage water discharged to the solar evaporator will not migrate from the solar evaporator into the vadose zone or the waters of the state in concentrations that pollute or threaten to pollute the waters of the state.
(e) Adequate groundwater monitoring and recordkeeping is performed to ensure compliance with this article.
(f) Salt isolated in a solar evaporator shall be managed in accordance with all applicable laws and shall eventually be harvested and sold for commercial purposes, used for beneficial purposes, or stored or disposed in a facility authorized to accept that waste pursuant to this chapter or Division 30 (commencing with Section 40000) of the Public Resources Code.
(Amended by Stats. 2006, Ch. 309, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2007.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018