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Efforts to develop water quality regulations for commercial Easter lily production in the Smith River area has brought growers, conservationists, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation representatives and state, federal and county agencies together.

The different players met for the first time on Aug. 20 as part of a technical advisory group tasked with guiding the development of the Smith River Lily Bulb Order.

They will begin discussing the developing regulations in November, meeting every other month before a public draft of the order is released in early 2026, according to Brenna Sullivan, engineering geologist for the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.

“Regional Water Board staff are planning some additional outreach to the public ahead of the release of the public draft,” Sullivan told the Wild Rivers Outpost in an email. “We are developing a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) document that will assess the environmental impacts of order implementation and plan to release an initial study to the public this fall.”

As of 2014, the coastal plain near the mouth of the Smith River has produced roughly 95 percent of the world’s Easter lily bulbs. About 1,000 acres of land is used for lily bulb production, according to an executive officer’s report issued Aug. 14-16.

Efforts to address water quality issues associated with commercial lily bulb farming in the Smith River area began with a series of stakeholder meetings in 2011. In 2013, the Regional Water Board directed staff to develop separate regulatory programs based on specific agricultural commodities and geographic areas.

The result was a Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program study conducted in the Smith River Plain between 2013 and 2017. As part of this study, Water Board staff sampled surface and groundwater in the area. Those samples showed that concentrations of pesticides, including copper fungicides, exceeded benchmarks set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the Water Board’s executive report, dissolved copper can be toxic to aquatic organisms “even at low levels.”

“At the April 2018 Regional Water Board meeting, the Board directed staff to develop a water quality management plan to address concerns highlighted by the monitoring results,” the report states.

Rachel McCain, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s director of natural resources, who is on the advisory group, the water quality management plan is a precursor to the Smith River Lily Bulb Order.

The Lily Bulb Order is part of the Water Quality Board’s irrigated lands program, she said. Agricultural orders also exist for the vineyard, cannabis and dairy industries as well as for the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds, according to McCain.

“The Lily Bulb Order has been a topic of discussion for several years,” she said. “The Smith River Plain Water Quality Management Plan was a precursor to where there was a way for growers to voluntarily adhere to some best management practices and some monitoring and then maybe implement some adaptive management [strategies].”

Along with McCain, other Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation representatives include Jennifer Jacobs, Monica Hiner, Erika Partee and Cynthia Ford.

The technical advisory group includes scientists with NOAA Fisheries, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, California Coastal Commission representative Hollie Hall and Del Norte County Agricultural Commissioner Justin Riggs.

Among the lily bulb growers, group members include Dahlstrom and Watt Bulb Farm Inc. owner Rob Miller, Matt and Will Westbrook, of Palmer Westbrook, Zeke Harms, a representative of Hastings Bulb Growers and Linda Crockett, who represents the Del Norte County Barm Bureau, the Del Norte County Resource Conservation District as well as Palmer Westbrook, according to a roster of TAG members.

The technical advisory group also includes representatives from Smith River Alliance, Friends of Del Norte, California Trout, EPIC and Save California Salmon. The Siskiyou Land Conservancy's Greg King, whose advocacy work includes eliminating excessive pesticide use associated with the Easter lily bulb industry, is also a member of the advisory group.

According to Crockett, manager of the Del Norte County Farm Bureau, whose family owns Crockett United Lily Growers, a technical advisory group has “always been there,” it’s just larger than it used to be. She said there will be a total of six meetings in the future.

“We just don’t have all the information,” she said. “That is why we are engaged with the Water Board to develop a plan.”

Though she didn’t go into detail, Crockett said lily bulb growers in the Smith River Plain have developed new management practices and have “done a lot of work” with the Water Board and its staff.

According to McCain, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation is part of the technical advisory committee in order to advocate for its citizens. Many tribal households are served by the Smith River Community Services District, a water district with its source on Rowdy Creek, above the agricultural operations.

The Nation is also concerned with legacy well contamination, soil contamination and air pollution, McCain said.

“Having tribal lands adjacent to bulb fields, we’re concerned as a neighbor. We’re certainly concerned as a steward of the estuary,” McCain said. “We’re advocating for tribal citizens who maybe don’t know the full extent of some of the problem.”

The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation will also contribute to the CEQA analysis focusing on impacts to cultural resources. This includes former village sites as well as sensitive gathering areas where tribal citizen collect basketry materials, medicinal plants as well as their food, McCain said.

According to Sullivan, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a community meeting to discuss the Lily Bulb Order this fall.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Del Norte County District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard, who represents Smith River, said he would ask Sullivan and her colleagues to discuss the Lily Bulb Order with the Board of Supervisors.

“I think it would be good for us to learn about the processes taking place with that waste discharge order development to see if the Board would want to have any input in the process,” Howard told his colleagues.

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