REGIONAL CONSIDERATIONS (North Coast Region Water Quality Control Board. R1)

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NPDES Major Individual Permit Inspections and Permit Renewals were affected by loss of staff capacity due to leaves equivalent to more than one person-year (out of 4 total for the program), and a complex, contentious permit renewal process for the City of Santa Rosa and Town of Windsor permits; both facilities discharge to the nutrient-impaired Laguna de Santa Rosa.

Targets for inspections of confined animal facilities were included in the Waste Discharge to Land, Industrial Waste category, but were recorded in the Confined Animal Facilities category. Total inspections (38) in these two categories meet the inspection target (38) for the two categories.

The TMDLs Adopted target (for two Eel River subwatersheds) was expected to be addressed through a Board resolution in FY 12/13. As a result of legal advice, the two TMDL adoptions are being combined into a TMDL Action Plan Basin Plan amendment for the entire Eel River watershed proposed for Board adoption in FY 13/14.

For NPDES Majors All Electronic, the target has been revised from 15 to 13 to reflect both the number of NPDES majors in the region (14) and that one NPDES major (Freshwater Tissue) was not discharging at the time of their most recent permit renewal (2010) and were exempted by permit condition from the eSMR requirement until such time as they resumed discharging. Because the facility never resumed discharging, the eSMR requirement was never activated. The plant has since been dismantled.

For % of Class I Priority Violations Addressed, 58 of the 68 (about 85%) Class 1 violations in the region older than 18 months are associated with the Tulelake wastewater treatment facility. Over the past two years, Region 1 and State Board staff have been working closely with Tulelake to secure funding for major improvements to the collection and treatment system, thereby correcting the problems leading to the chronic violations and threats/impacts to receiving waters. With funding now in place and the project underway, staff are developing appropriate enforcement Order(s) to incorporate the Discharger's penalty obligations into the facility improvement project.

The significant overage in the targets for Cleanup Program Sites Projected Closed (190%) and Underground Storage Tank Sites Projected Closed (284%) is due to the effects of the State Water Resources Control Board's Low-Threat Underground Storage Tank Case Closure Policy (Policy) that was passed in August 2012. It was not possible to predict the effect of the Policy on the open SCP and UST sites.