In 2009, Bill Van Ryn, operator of both an organic and a conventional dairy in California’s Central Valley, faced a serious hurdle: His dairies faced new regulatory requirements to develop and implement Waste Management Plans for water quality work. Without the plans and work, his dairies would be shut down. Van Ryn had lots of company. Fourteen hundred other dairies in the Central Valley faced the same mandate. Van Ryn had been working toward a goal of making his dairies “closed loop systems” that contained and reused all their water. The new regulations had similar goals as Van Ryn’s—protect the creeks and other water bodies. However, the new mandate came at a very difficult financial time for dairy producers, many of whom were dancing on the edge of being able to stay in business. Through a collaborative agreement, Western United Dairymen (WUD) worked with the California Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to find both technical and financial ways to help keep the milk flowing and the water clean on Central Valley dairies.(more) Feb. 7, 2012 NRCS Press Release