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ITEM: 13 SUBJECT: Musco Family Olive Company and the Studley Company, Wastewater Treatment and Land Disposal Facility, San Joaquin County- Consideration of Revised Waste Discharge Requirements and of a Cleanup and Abatement Order DISCUSSION: Musco Family Olive Company and the Studley company own and operate an olive processing facility near Tracy. Wastewater generated at the facility is regulated under two separate WDRs. The more concentrated wastewater is directed to two Title 27 ponds,while the less concentrated wastewater is applied to 200 acres of cropland. This Order pertains to the wastewater applied to land. The Discharger has a history of noncompliance with its WDRs, and in January and June 2002, the Board issued Time Schedule Orders to ensure facility improvements in a timely manner. Musco has also recently settled a$150,000 Administrative Civil Liability for failure to comply with a 2000 Cleanup and Abatement Order. Staff considered two main issues while preparing these WDRs. The first is the Discharger's request to increase the wastewater flow over that contained in the current WDRs. Staff has carefully reviewed the water balance and has concerns about the estimated volumes of tailwater and stormwater. However, these values cannot be measured until Musco is operating its entire system. Therefore, these WDRs allow the requested higher limitation(800,000 gpd as a monthly average) subject to certain conditions: no irrigation during December, January, or February(as shown in the Discharger's water balance), measurement of the amount of tailwater returned to the pond,measurement/estimation of the amount of stormwater returned to the ponds, and cessation of discharge if either storage pond contains less than two feet of freeboard. The second major issue is in regard to effluent limitations. The Discharger proposed to discharge waste with a total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration of up to 4,500 mg/l. The RWD states that the crops will take up approximately one-tenth of the applied salt. After extensive review and analysis of a limited data set, staff have determined that the interim background groundwater concentration for TDS is 2,047 mg/l. Therefore,the Discharger is proposing to discharge designated waste, as defined in Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations. In order to comply with State Board Resolution 68-16 and to protect the underlying groundwater,this Order contains a TDS effluent limitation of 2,047 mg/1. The accompanying Cleanup and Abatement Order provides a two year time schedule for the Discharger to make the necessary changes to comply with the effluent limitations. The Order requires the Discharger to install additional groundwater monitoring wells and to complete a site-specific study of the background