Peach Farmer Ken Hajek stands in front of his orchard on Saturday morning in Lodi. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

Peach farmer: 'Get your act together'

Lodi's wastewater discharge have too much salt?

When Ken Hajek began growing peaches on 25 acres of land near Lodi's wastewater treatment plant in 2000, he noticed that the leaves on the end of the branches turned brown during the summer.

Hajek, who has a degree from University of California, Davis in biology, studied the groundwater under his farm and discovered that it was high in salt.

"The salts cause some of the limbs to die back," he said. "This increases my pruning cost because I have to cut away the burnt tips every year. It's an economic struggle. I produce peaches that are healthy and taste great, but my yields are depressed a little bit by salt stresses."

In 2004, Hajek, 56, began looking at city wastewater studies. He started to suspect that the salt and harmful levels of nitrate in the groundwater were caused by Lodi's wastewater treatment plant on Interstate 5 at White Slough, less than two miles southeast of his farm. The plant treats the city's sewer water and discharges it into the Delta for part of the year and onto surrounding farms during the summer months.

Hajek, whose father worked for the international engineering firm, Bechtel, grew up in the Bay Area and also spent some of his childhood in South Africa, Europe and Canada. After high school, Hajek, who stands at 6 feet 8 inches, went to University of California, Berkeley where he played basketball. He finished college at Davis before joining the forest service.

His father convinced him to go into dentistry and he earned a degree from University of California, San Francisco before moving to Lodi 30 years ago to start a dentistry practice. Hajek recently moved to Sacramento to work as a dentist part time, and spends the weekends at his farm just south of Lodi.

Hajek has spent the last two years trying to press the city to clean up its discharge. He has met with City Council members, public works officials, State Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi and then-Congressman Richard Pombo's staffers.

"It has not done me any good," he said.

Recently, though, Hajek got someone to listen. The State Water Resources Control Board published a report two weeks ago that confirms what Hajek had suspected all along: The city's treatment plant is polluting the groundwater.

City officials say that the groundwater flows southeast, away from the city and Hajek's farm.

But Hajek thinks otherwise.

He has created a Styrofoam model of San Joaquin County's groundwater table, and he uses it to demonstrate how seasonal demands on groundwater influence the flow. In the summer, he said, farmers near Lodi draw a great deal of groundwater, which creates a depression in the water table. Water from White Slough flows northeast, past his farm, and into this depression.

To take the salt out of the water, Hajek has suggested a process known as reverse osmosis, a technology that city officials say could cost $50 million or more.

As an alternative solution, Hajek also proposed buying land in the Delta and creating a wetland. Wastewater can be filtered through this sort of natural treatment plant before being discharged.

"What nature can do, let nature do," he said. "It's cheaper."

Public Works Director Richard Prima said the city hasn't discharged more salts into the groundwater than is permitted by the state. He said the city is reaching state goals on the quality of its effluent. Prima did acknowledge that there is a nitrate problem, but he said the city is fixing that issue and expects to meet the requirements of a new wastewater permit that could be issued as early as next month.

"We don't believe we are causing a salinity problem," he said. "The area in general has a salinity issue."

Prima said Hajek's suggestions are not realistic.

"Over time, the state says you have to do more (to treat discharge)," he said. "Eventually, we will do more, but you can't do it all at once. That's what he wanted."

Hajek continues to press the city to change the way it discharges wastewater.

He enjoys racquetball, chess, hiking and traveling; in 2001 he spent a few months in the East African nation of Eritrea working on an agricultural project.

But his main passion is farming. Hajek wants to make sure his groundwater is clean so he can continue producing tasty peaches. Among a stack of reports on Lodi's wastewater discharge, Hajek has a photo of a storm drain cover. A blue sign on the metal lid says, "No dumping drains to river" and has a picture of a fish.

"It strikes me as a hell of a contrast every time I look at one of these with a little blue fish," he said. "They city is mandated to do all sorts of programs like this. 'No dumping. Make sure you drain your pools carefully because there's too much salt in them. We don't want that in the water.' And they're dumping 11 tons a day in the groundwater. Come on guys, stop beating on us little guys. Get your act together."

Contact reporter Matt Brown at mattb@lodinews.com.