Water

In 2005, the Central Coast Wine Growers' Association pursued a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation as part of the Guadalupe Settlement Funds to address agricultural water quality. The CCWGA sought the assistance of four additional agricultural associations and formed the Agricultural Watershed Coalition of Southern San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. The Central Coast Wine Growers' Association Foundation is responsible for the administration of the grant.

The Agricultural Watershed Coalition is comprised of the Central Coast Wine Growers’ Association; Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau; Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties; Santa Barbara County Flower and Nursery Growers Association; and Santa Barbara County Cattlemen’s Association. Kay Mercer is the Coordinator for the Santa Barbara and Southern San Luis Obispo Counties Watershed Coalition.

The Coalition’s goals are to assist landowners in Southern San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County to comply with the Conditional Ag Waiver for irrigated agriculture, provide water quality short courses, develop individual management plans, and implement and monitor progress of the plans.

Kay works with a variety of resource providers, watershed working groups, and governmental agencies to accomplish these goals. Furthermore, she has been an integral part of the formation and initiation of the Condition Waiver Cooperative Monitoring Program. Kay has had the opportunity to advocate on behalf of agriculture to a diverse group on issues that relate to agricultural water quality.

Kay has extensive experience in Agriculture. She has a B.S. in Agronomy with a specialty in Range Management and an M.S. in Weed Science. Kay has worked in production agriculture for over 20 years. She spent four years working in the environmental industry for an analytical laboratory and groundwater remediation firm. She is a licensed PCA and has had the opportunity to work throughout the states of California, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Her experiences have allowed her to work with all cropping systems in the southern half of California.

Southern San Luis Obispo & Santa Barbara Counties Agriculture Watershed Coalition
To find out more about the Southern SLO & SB Counties Ag Watershed Coalition, click on this link. Get updates, download forms, learn about upcoming meetings.

For more information please call
(805) 928-6301 or email below:
sbagcoalition@verizon.net