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Reissued Waste Discharge Requirements General Order R5-2013-0122 4 Existing Milk Cow Dairies CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT 16. The Central Valley Water Board is the lead agency with respect to the issuance of this Order under applicable provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)(Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.). 17. In accordance with CEQA, the Central Valley Water Board adopted a Negative Declaration in 1982 concurrently with the adoption of Central Valley Water Board Resolution 82-036 (Waiving Waste Discharge Requirements for Specific Types of Discharge), which waived waste discharge requirements for confined animal facilities where the Discharger complies with Central Valley Water Board guidelines. That waiver program expired on 1 January 2003. 18. Food and Agricultural Code section 33487 states that, "No environmental impact report may be required by any state agency for any activity of a dairy farm, including adoption of waste discharge requirements under Division 7 of the Water Code" under the following circumstances: (1) when the dairy will be constructed and operated in accordance with the minimum standards in Chapter 5 of the Food and Agricultural Code; (2) where the applicable local agencies have completed all necessary reviews and approvals including that required by CEQA; and (3) where a permit for construction was issued by a local agency on or after the effective date of Food and Agricultural Code section 33487 and construction has begun. 19. The benchmark for evaluating whether this Order will have impacts on the environment is the "environmental baseline." The environmental baseline normally consists of "a description of the physical environmental conditions in the vicinity of the project at the time...environmental analysis is commenced." (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15125(a).) The receipt of a permit application is one event that can be used to mark the beginning of the environmental review process and therefore an appropriate date for the environmental baseline. (Fat v. County of Sacramento (2002) 97 Cal.AppAth 1270, 1278.) The Board solicited permit applications (ROWDs) from existing dairies on 8 August 2005. These reports were due on 17 October 2005. The information contained in the ROWDs submitted to the Board in 2005 presented Board staff with a description of the dairies as they existed at that date. The environmental baseline for the 2007 General Order therefore consisted of the milk cow dairies (defined by their size and scope of herd, facilities, and operation) as they and their surrounding physical environment existed on 17 October 2005. Dairy herd size fluctuation is accounted for in that the environmental baseline incorporates the normal 15 percent variation in the number of mature dairy cows contained in a given herd.