California Water Boards' Annual Performance Report - Fiscal Year 2020-21 

PLAN AND ASSESS: SURFACE WATER QUALITY

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

  • Data Source: State Water Board's Nonpoint Source Program. Period: July 1,  2020 - June 30,  2021 .
  • Unit of Measure: Number of success stories written about nonpoint source-impaired waters partially or fully restored.
  • Data Definitions: Water body: For this measure, a nonpoint source-impaired water body. Pollutant: The waste, substance, or water quality parameter that is causing the water body impairment.

GLOSSARY

Fully Restored Water Body
A fully restored water body, as defined by USEPA, means that all water quality standards and designated beneficial uses are being met.

Nonpoint Source-Impaired Water Body
To qualify as a success story, a water body must have been listed on the CWA section 303(d) list or on the Integrated Report (IR) as Category 4 or 5 water body during the 1998/2000 listing cycle or subsequent years.  Therefore, a nonpoint source-impaired water body for this performance measure is one that is primarily impaired due to the release of pollutants over a diffuse and wide area (also called polluted runoff), as specified in the 2000 or later federal Clean Water Act Section 303(d) lists of impaired waters.

Partially Restored Water Body
A partially restored water body, as defined by USEPA, means that after restoration the water body meets some, but not all, of the initially impaired water quality standards or designated uses.

Impaired Water Bodies/Watersheds
Impaired water bodies are those that are not supporting one or more of their beneficial uses designated in water quality standards. For the purpose of this measure, "impaired water bodies" are those identified by the State and USEPA in the 2002 Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 303(d) list (which is used as a baseline for this measure). For the purpose of this measure, an "impaired watershed" is a watershed containing one or more impaired water bodies.