|
WATERSHED
MANAGEMENT |
| To
protect water resources within a watershed
context, a mix of point and nonpoint source
discharges, ground and surface water interactions,
and water quality/water quantity relationships
must be considered. These complex relationships
present considerable challenges to water
resource protection programs. The State
and Regional Boards are responding to these
challenges with the Watershed Management
Initiative (WMI). The WMI is designed to
integrate various surface and ground water
regulatory programs while promoting cooperative,
collaborative efforts within a watershed.
It is also designed to focus limited resources
on key issues and use sound science.
For
initial implementation of the WMI, each
Regional Board identified the watersheds
in their Region, prioritized water quality
issues, and developed watershed management
strategies. These strategies and the State
Board's overall coordinating approach to
WMI are contained in the Integrated Plan
for Implementation of the WMI which is updated
as needed. In following years, the Regional
Boards have continued to build upon their
early efforts to utilize this approach.
The full version of our WMI Chapter, including
permit lists, is available on this website;
it outlines our ongoing efforts to continue
implementation of the WMI. Any questions
about the WMI can be directed to Shirley
Birosik phone: (213) 576-6679 email: sbirosik@waterboards.ca.gov
For
information about a specific watershed (extracted
from the WMI Chapter), please click on the
watershed map below:
WMI
Chapter:
Additional
information on local watershed planning
activities and sources of funding maybe
found in the pulldown list below. (extracted
from the WMI Chapter):
|
| |
|
|
|
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
|
|
The
State Water Information Management system
(SWIM) is an organizational-wide database
that was designed to facilitate electronic
reporting, tracking, and analysis of regional
data and information. The two modules that
have been developed so far have incorporated
the core structure of the Waste Discharger
System (WDS) and information for the Underground
Investigations (UGI). The modular structure
of the database allows inclusion of new
programs without redesigning the data model.
WDS has now been shut down and converted
statewide to SWIM. We continue to develop
and pilot new models and tools. Currently
under development is a query by address
tool, expanded ad-hoc query tool, and environmental
data entry and retrieval tools. The new
database is Windows-based and uses pull-down
menus to ensure consistency of data.
SWIM now tracks information on permits,
both NPDES and non-NPDES. This module expands
the old database in several ways. We can
now record the permit limits and can perform
compliance checking of electronic data against
these limits. Data submitted electronically
are also available for evaluation by region
or watershed or through a number of other
filters. Data is also available for historic
permits. Previously only data from the current
fiscal year was online.
The
Underground Investigations (UGI) module
is a replacement for Region 4's Well Investigation
Program (WIP) database. This module tracks
the progress of WIP facilities, and provides
reports to USEPA. This module could be expanded
to track the progress of facilities in other
programs such as Above Ground Tanks, Department
of Defense, or Spills, Leaks, Investigation,
and Cleanup should the need arise. This
module could also be expanded to evaluate
groundwater treatment methods, to track
contaminants spatially, and to tie into
Region 4's geographic information system
(GIS).
This
past year we took the first steps to move
our GIS from a limited "special project"
oriented tool to a region- and program-wide
standard tool. These steps include making
Arcview available to all staff, having all
coverages converted to standard projection
and "served" from a central location, and
developing custom interfaces for the UGT,
WIP, and TMDL programs.
Over
time, we expect to expand the capabilities
of the system, by 1) adding new components
to the system, 2) linking the data to geographic
layers, 3) linking our system with others
such as USEPA and 4) providing access by
the public to certain information.
|
|
|
| |
|
STANDARDS
and TMDLs
|
|
Each
Regional Board is required to perform a
"triennial review" periodically in order
to identify high priority Basin Planning
issues for the next three years Staff plan
to conduct a triennial review during FY99/00
calendar year to set priorities for the
next three years.
Basin
Plan amendments will be completed periodically
as new standards, policies, and other information
are developed. Staff completed a Basin Plan
amendment (the Board adopted Resolution
No. 97-02 at the January 1997 Board meeting)
which addressed regional chloride objectives.
The policy for chloride objectives considered
chloride concentrations in water supplies
that are imported into the Los Angeles Region,
which are often higher than chloride concentrations
in local water supplies. The policy has
since been approved by the State Board and
Office of Administrative Law (OAL).
Basin
Plan amendments updating policies for municipal
and domestic water supply designations were
brought to the Board for consideration in
late 1998. In November 1998, the Regional
Board voted to amend the Water Quality Control
Plan for the Los Angeles Region (Basin Plan),
by adopting a resolution to "Incorporate
Changes in Beneficial Use Designations for
Selected Waters." This amendment removed
the beneficial use designation for "Municipal
and Domestic Supply" (MUN) from eight surface
waters and two ground water areas along
the coast. The State Board voted to approve
this amendment at the February 1999 Board
hearing, however, in July 1999, the State
Office of Administrative Law (OAL) issued
a Notification of Disapproval. The Regional
Board plans to resubmit the record for consideration
by the OAL.
The
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a number
that represents the assimilative capacity
of a receiving water to absorb a pollutant.
The TMDL is the sum of the individual wasteload
allocations for point sources, load allocations
for nonpoint sources plus an allotment for
natural background loading, and a margin
of safety. TMDLs can be expressed in terms
of mass per time (the traditional approach)
or in other ways such as toxicity or a percentage
reduction or other appropriate measure relating
to a state water quality objective. A TMDL
is implemented by reallocating the total
allowable pollution among the different
pollutant sources(through the permitting
process or other regulatory means) to ensure
that the water quality objectives are achieved.
Grouping
TMDLs is a reasonable and logical way to
collapse the total number of individual
TMDLs to make the most effective use of
resources we currently have and any which
we may obtain in the future. This is largely
due to the fact that some of the "pollutants"
for which a water may be listed are actually
"effects" of pollutants. For example, many
reaches of the Los Angeles River are listed
for ammonia. Some of the same reaches are
listed for pH problems while other reaches
are listed for algae, scum, and odors. It
is very likely the presence of these "pollutants"
are interrelated. Excessive nitrogen (reflected
here as high levels of ammonia) may lead
to a condition of eutrophication (excessive
nutrient loading) which can influence pH
levels as well as promote increased algal
growth. Scum may be evident due to floating
algal material and odors may result when
excessive algae starts to die off. Thus,
it makes sense to group these TMDLs (calling
it a "nitrogen and related effects" TMDL
"group") and approach the problem by determining
the sources of nitrogen loading into the
watershed and the appropriate allocations
in order to reduce loadings. Table
7A (pdf version) of the WMI Chapter
lists all of the TMDLs in the Region as
well as a schedule for completion. All TMDLs
must be completed by 2011 (as requested
by U.S. EPA and State Board and per a consent
decree). USEPA has produced a number of
documents relating to TMDL development;
these may be found on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/.
TMDLs
will be adopted as Basin Plan amendments.
This will generate a significant workload
for Standards/TMDL staff over the next 13
years (see schedule in Appendices to WMI
Chapter on this website). We also anticipate
that watershed efforts utilized, in part,
to accomplish TMDLs will identify other
possibilities for Basin Plan studies and
amendments (e.g., new or revised standards,
new policies).
|
|
|
| |
|
NONPOINT
SOURCE PROGRAM
|
| In
May 2004, the SWRCB adopted the Implementation
and Enforcement of the Nonpoint Source Pollution
Control Program Policy. The policy will
generally be enforced through the Porter-Cologne
Act. The Porter-Cologne Act also establishes
the administrative permitting authority
in the form of Waste Discharge requirements
(WDRs), waivers of WDRs and basin plan prohibitions
to be use to control NPS discharges. Enforcement
options are also in place to ensure dischargers
comply with permitting requirements. The
3-tier policy is no longer in effect.
To
view the policy in its entirety visit: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/nps/docs/oalfinalcopy052604.doc.
The
majority of our efforts will focus on the
impacts of agriculture activities, implementation
of pump out requirements in marinas and
the administration of grants and loans.
|
| |
|
