San Diego Coastkeeper
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Water Board Renews Stormwater Permit
On January 24, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a new municipal stormwater permit that governs urban runoff discharges from 22 cities and agencies within the San Diego region. The proposed permit builds on the protections contained in the previous permit, authorized in 2001, which was hotly debated and ultimately survived a developer-led legal challenge. With San Diego Coastkeeper and NRDC intervening to defend the 2001 permit, the California Supreme Court in 2005 refused to overturn a unanimous lower court decision that upheld the landmark stormwater regulation.
As with its predecessor, the 2006 permit includes specific requirements for monitoring and enforcement, requires new developments and redevelopments to capture and treat runoff on-site, and requires municipalities to achieve water quality standards, not to merely make ‘best efforts’ to reduce stormwater flows. The new permit also contains new – and controversial – provisions, including requirements for local agencies to adopt Hydromodification Management Plans (that mandate that certain types of new development control water flow off the site to maintain pre-project flow energy, sediment transport, and erosion characteristics), Regional Urban Runoff Management Plans (to formally establish regional control strategies), and Program Effectiveness Assessments (to periodically review and modify activities based on water quality conditions).
Urban runoff remains the largest contributor of pollution to San Diego’s waters. Since the 2001 permit was adopted, beach advisories in San Diego have decreased by almost 74%, and the permit has been a national model for stormwater regulation. The new permit will hopefully continue efforts to reduce pollution from urban runoff.
New Permit Provisions
The following provisions are some of the most innovative – and controversial – in the 2006 permit:
Hydromodification Management Plan (HMP) - Hydromodification is the alteration of the natural flow of water, and often takes the form of channelizing former stream or riverbeds. When development projects that modify hydrology are carried out without paying attention to protecting soil and water resources, a variety of problems can result, including: excess sediment flowing into our watersheds; downstream erosion; disruption of natural drainage; irregular stream flows; and elevated water temperatures. The new permit requires cities to provide a HMP to prevent such damage. The plans will mandate that certain types of new development control water flow off the site to maintain pre-project flow energy, sediment transport, and erosion characteristics.
Regional Urban Runoff Management Plan – The RURMP serves as a framework to formally establish regional control strategies, allowing and encouraging cities to integrate regional, watershed, and jurisdictional activities. This implements a watershed approach, and is necessary because stormwater does not respect political boundaries, and pollutants can cross through many cities as they flow through and to our creeks, rivers, beaches, and bays.
Program Effectiveness Assessment – The new permit highlights the need to periodically review and modify activities based on water quality conditions. This basic requirement will help permittees meet the goal of actually correcting water quality problems.
Municipal Storm Water Permit - History
In 2001, the Building Industry Association (BIA) challenged the City of San Diego's stormwater permit. As Interveners in the litigation, Coastkeeper and the National Resources Defense Council (NRCD) joined with the State Water Resources Control Board and the California State Attorney General's office to defend this watershed permit, which seeks to address runoff pollution, now the number one source of pollution to California's coast. The environmental groups worked closely with the Attorney General's office to defend this suit, and our involvement played a critical role in ensuring the permit was not weakened in the face of BIA's attack.
On February 14, 2003 the San Diego Superior Court dismissed the developer-led lawsuit. Coastkeeper and NRDC continued working with government agencies to help defend the precedent-setting stormwater regulations through two BIA appeals.
On December 7, 2004, a unanimous three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal ruled that state regulators can require that bodies of water are clean, not merely require that polluters make an effort to reduce contaminated runoff.
On March 30, 2005, after BIA's final appeal, the California Supreme Court refused to overturn the appellate court ruling, vindicating the actions of environmental officials in adopting a clean water plan that is already reducing pollution of local waters. Since many recently issued stormwater permits throughout California are modeled after the San Diego permit, the Court's ruling will benefit people throughout California.
Urban runoff is the biggest source of pollution in California's coastal water, rivers, streams and lakes. The BIA had argued that water pollution cleanup plans meant to curtail urban runoff but could not be used to force builders, businesses and municipalities to meet water quality standards but only to make an effort at cleanup. The Court of Appeal completely rejected that argument. "We are thrilled to see the court uphold San Diego's groundbreaking stormwater permit, which has already had a positive impact on the health of local waters," said Bruce Reznik, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper.