A year ago last summer I helped Riverside County municipalities draft stormwater guidance for new development projects. After many subsequent revisions, the Regional Water Quality Control Board for the Santa Ana Region approved the municipalities’ Water Quality Management Plan on October 22. New permit requirements kick in for projects reviewed on or after December 6—tomorrow—so… Continue reading Training
Category: Stormwater Pollution Prevention
Outputs and Outcomes
As noted in this post, our regional group of regulators and municipal stormwater permittees is moving away from quantifying trash loads and trash reductions. That’s a good thing, but we seem to be stuck with assessing success by documenting outputs (for example, frequency of street sweeping, or portion of the drainage system equipped with capture… Continue reading Outputs and Outcomes
Similar and Different
How do we measure success? In a meeting this past week, a group of municipal staff, Regional Water Board staff, and consultants reviewed a framework for local trash reduction plans. Each of 75-odd Bay Area cities, towns, and county governments will need to prepare these plans to reduce and eliminate—by 2024—trash in stormwater. Back in… Continue reading Similar and Different
Latest Training
I’ve posted the Powerpoint presentations from a recent half-day training, “How to Prepare Stormwater Control Plans for Development Projects,” on the Contra Costa Clean Water Program’s website.
Shaking my head
The current statewide stormwater Phase II NPDES permit was issued in 2003 and expired in 2008. It’s been extended administratively while State Water Resources Control Board staff drafts an update. This permit tells smaller California cities and towns what they must do to reduce the amount of pollutants discharged from their streets, gutters, and drainage… Continue reading Shaking my head
Lost Opportunity
Here’s a pair of maps. The first one shows a 27-acre area tributary to a ravine. The second roughs out the location where a bioretention facility might go. The facility would intercept runoff—infiltrating some of it, evaporating a bit more, and treating the remainder before letting it seep toward the creek downstream. The project was… Continue reading Lost Opportunity
Do the Minimum
It was 1991, maybe early 1992. I left my office at the sewage treatment plant and drove down to City Hall. In the City Manager’s office, I had 10 minutes of his time to explain the new stormwater regulations. Yes, under the Clean Water Act, permits would now cover rainwater runoff from roofs, streets, and… Continue reading Do the Minimum