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TBU - Designations

Basin Plan Amendments to add the Tribal Beneficial Use Designations to the Water Quality Control Plans for the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board

The Central Valley Water Board recognized the need to designate Tribal Beneficial Uses (TBUs), where appropriate, during its December 2018 Joint Triennial Review of its Basins Plans. TBUs are water quality designations that recognize and protect the vital relationships between California Native American tribes and water. These uses are central to the health, identity, and sovereignty of tribal communities, supporting cultural, spiritual, ceremonial, and traditional lifeways that have existed since time immemorial and continue today.

The Central Valley Water Board is now initiating consideration of Basin Plan amendments (BPAs) to designate the CUL and COMM beneficial uses in high quality surface waterbodies in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watershed and the Tulare Lake watershed.

The proposed BPA will also designate Commercial and Sport Fishing (COMM) in the same waterbodies being proposed for CUL designation because there is overlap between these two categories of uses.

If the proposed BPAs are adopted and the CUL and COMM beneficial use designations are added to the Basin Plans, future Board actions to authorize discharges of waste and otherwise regulate water quality will include requirements intended to protect those designated CUL and COMM uses.

Any waterbody used by tribes for cultural and tradition use can be requested for tribal beneficial use designation. Additional waterbodies that were requested for TBUs but do not meet the criteria for the current BPA will be designated in subsequent BPAs

Water Bodies Considered for CUL Designation

Requests for TBU Designations Received