Thumbnail photo: Ninety-five percent of Easter lily bulb production in the United States occurs in the Smith River coastal plain. | Photo courtesy of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Conservationists seeking to eliminate pesticide use in the Smith River Easter lily bulb industry are urging residents to tell water regulators how they have been impacted on Wednesday. The California Northcoast Regional Water Quality Control Board isn’t expected to take action, Senior Water Resource Control Engineer David Kuszmar told Redwood Voice Community News. Instead, staff will present findings from a local water quality monitoring study and provide an update on the development of water quality regulations for lily bulb growers. “This meeting represents an important opportunity for interested members of the public to speak directly to the Board about water quality issues that concern them, Kuszmar said. “Board members are free to offer suggestions and/or provide direction to staff at any time based on information provided and comments received.” The meeting, which will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Flynn Center in Crescent City, comes ahead of the scheduled release of a draft Smith River Lily Bulb Order and draft environmental impact report in January. Once it’s adopted — potentially in about a year — the Smith River Lily Bulb Order will “incorporate adaptive management strategies to prevent or minimize water quality impacts from lily bulb agricultural discharges,” the Water Board’s staff report states. Efforts to address water quality issues associated with lily bulb production in the Smith River area date back to 2011. The region produces about 80% of the world’s Easter lily bulbs on 1,000 acres of farmland, though about 200 to 250 acres are in production in a given year, according to the staff report. 1-smith-ssr-1Download In August 2024, a technical advisory group consisting of lily bulb farmers, conservationists from the Siskiyou Land Conservancy and the Environmental Protection Information Center, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation as well as state and federal agencies was formed to guide the Lily Bulb Order’s development. Water Board scientists also participated in two public meetings and gave a presentation to the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors last year. At those meetings, they heard from Smith River area residents who complained of skin and eye irritation, respiratory issues and battles with cancer they associate with the copper diuron and other pesticides and fertilizers the lily bulb industry uses. Water Quality Control Board scientists do not plan to address the Board of Supervisors this year, Kuszmar told Redwood Voice. After last year’s public meetings, the Water Board staff sampled nine private domestic wells within the lily bulb cultivation area. It also completed the Smith River Plain Surface Water Monitoring Report 2021-2024 in September. Water Board staff will discuss these finding and the report on Wednesday. In a press release, the Siskiyou Land Conservancy stated that they and EPIC are asking residents to attend the Water Board meeting and ask its members to require that “Easter lily farmers achieve a ‘zero discharge’ of all pesticide residues into the Smith River estuary.” “For more than two decades the state Water Board has given lily growers a free pass to illegally contaminate the critically important estuary of California’s most biologically intact river,” SLC Executive Director Greg King stated in the press release. “Right now, in the Board’s newly-launched permit process, the state has a chance to finally right this terrible wrong.” To view a copy of the Water Board’s staff report, click here. To participate in Wednesday’s meeting virtually, click here.