STOCKTON — Taxpayers could pay up to $3.8 billion to rid farms in Merced, Fresno and Kings counties of poisonous irrigation runoff water, according to federal documents.
Draining the selenium-laden runoff from the San Joaquin Valley's west side and completing the San Luis Drain could involve retiring 200,000 acres of farmland, treating water and dumping it in the delta or ocean, or sending the water to evaporation ponds.
