Is Your Salad Killing Sea Otters?

For over 15 years, The Otter Project has led advocacy efforts on the Central Coast to eliminate toxic agricultural discharges to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Salinas Valley, recognized as the "Salad Bowl of America,” produces 80% of all the leafy greens and strawberries found in our supermarkets nation-wide. Unfortunately, this has turned 55% of the region’s inland waters into highly toxic drains for agricultural pesticides and nutrients that flow into the heart of critical habitat for the already threatened sea otter.  

Farm fertilizers cause ocean “dead zones” and harmful algal blooms. In 2010, scientists discovered that otters were dying of microcystis poisoning. Microcystis is a highly toxic freshwater algae that flows into the ocean and is concentrated within the shellfish otters eat. Pesticides and other agricultural chemicals can build up and impact otters’ immune systems. In the last several years there have been at least three dozen sea otter deaths from microcystis poisoning.

Irrigated agriculture does not have to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. This blanket exemption has led to widespread agricultural pollution across America including “dead zones” offshore of major rivers on every coast.  Irrigated agriculture is not, however, exempt from California’s water code. The Otter Project uses the laws in our state’s water code to advance pollution controls that prevent fertilizer and pesticide runoff from farms.

Last year, The Otter Project appealed the Central Coast regional agricultural permit because it lacked the necessary requirements to prevent nutrient and pesticide runoff from harming sea otters. The State Water Board accepted the appeal, but unfortunately, did not address our concerns that the agricultural permit does not protect against fertilizer and pesticide runoff. In response, this month we submitted legal comments demanding that the state protect the sea otter from agricultural pollution. Specifically, we are calling on the State Water Board to require mandatory wetland setbacks. Setbacks are critical to protecting water quality – and ultimately the Monterey Sanctuary – because they act as buffers and prevent fertilizers and pesticides from running off into the nearby creek or river.

Unless the State Water Board acts to require wetland setbacks, the Central Coast’s waters are at risk of pesticide toxicity and nutrient-caused harmful algae blooms. Requiring wetland setbacks was the Regional Water Board’s original plan to address water toxicity in the region. But due to political pressure and the farmers’ desire for more profits, the Regional Water Board eliminated the wetland setbacks, and with it, any surface water protections. Without the State Water Board addressing the need for setbacks, the Central Coast Ag Order will fail to achieve livable habitat conditions for the sea otter.