California Water Boards' Annual Performance Report
Fiscal Year 2025-26

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

  • Data Source: Water Boards ILRP database.
  • Unit of Measure: Number of acres enrolled under general conditional waivers of WDRs at Regional Water Boards with ILRP.
  • Data Definitions: Acres Enrolled: Agricultural acreage under the control of commercial irrigated agricultural operators enrolled under a general conditional waiver of WDRs issued by a Regional Water Board as part of their ILRP.
  • References:

GLOSSARY

Irrigated Agricultural Lands
Lands where water is applied to produce crops such as row crops, vineyards, field and tree crops, and other commercial crop productions.

Order(s)
Regional Water Boards issue an Order (Waste Discharge Requirements or conditional waivers of Waste Discharge Requirements) to address region-based agricultural related water quality impacts. Sometimes, Regional Water Boards will have multiple ILRP Orders (e.g. an Order for individually enrolled operations and an Order for operations participating in the approved third-party program).

Approved Third-Party
The regulated operators can join a third-party program approved by their Regional Water Board, which help implement Order requirements and/or conducts group monitoring. In many regions, the approved third-party is referred to as a Coalition.

Total Acres Enrolled Under Order(s)
Total acres of irrigated farmland enrolled under a Regional Water Board’s Order. If this number is negative, it indicates that total acreage enrolled in the ILRP has decreased. This could be due to regular operational or drought-induced fallowing, seasonal or rotational crop planting and harvesting, an operation submitting a Notice of Termination (NOT), or other operational changes which cause a decrease in irrigated agricultural acreage.

Total Operations Enrolled Under Order(s)
Total operations enrolled under a Regional Water Board’s Order. If this number is negative, it indicates that the number of operations enrolled under an Order has decreased. This occurs when an operation submits an NOT to their Regional Water Board. The Regional Water Board reviews the NOT, and if it determines that Order coverage no longer applies (e.g. the land is sold to another party, the land is no longer operating as an irrigated agricultural operation, etc.), the NOT is approved and the operator is no longer enrolled.