BILL NUMBER: SB 310	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Ducheny

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2009

   An act to add Chapter 27 (commencing with Section 16100) to
Division 7 of the Water Code, relating to water quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 310, as introduced, Ducheny. Water quality: stormwater and
other runoff.
   Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and
the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste
discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater in accordance
with the federal national pollutant discharge elimination system
(NPDES) permit program pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act and
the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Various programs
finance regional water management planning.
   This bill would authorize a county, city, or special district that
is a permittee or copermittee under an NPDES permit for a municipal
separate storm sewer system to develop a watershed improvement plan
that addresses major sources of pollutants in receiving water,
stormwater, urban runoff, or other surface runoff pollution within
the watershed or subwatershed to which the plan applies. The regional
boards would be authorized to participate in the preparation of the
watershed improvement plan. The bill would authorize a county, city,
or special district, or combination thereof, to impose fees on
activities that generate or contribute to runoff, stormwater, or
surface runoff pollution to pay the costs of the preparation of a
watershed improvement plan or the implementation of a plan that is
approved by a regional board if the plan will facilitate compliance
with one or more water quality requirements. The bill would authorize
a county, city, or special district, or combination thereof, to
plan, design, implement, construct, operate, and maintain controls
and facilities to improve water quality.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Uncontrolled pollutants in urban runoff, stormwater, and other
forms of runoff and nonpoint source pollution present a significant
water quality problem and challenge to the State of California, and
can affect adversely surface waters, water supplies, public health,
recreation, and ecology.
   (b) In 2008, the National Research Council's Committee on Reducing
Stormwater Discharge Contributions to Water Pollution published a
report entitled Urban Stormwater Management in the United States. The
report examined the effectiveness of existing regulatory programs
and found that significant changes are needed if they are to improve
the quality of the nation's waters. A principal conclusion of the
report is that stormwater cannot be adequately managed on a piecemeal
basis due to the complexity of both the hydrologic and pollutant
processes and their effect on habitat and stream quality. The report
recommends that stormwater and other forms of runoff are best
addressed through a watershed-based approach.
   (c) This act will encourage the development of watershed-based
solutions through the development, adoption, and implementation of
watershed improvement plans. As provided in this act, watershed
improvement plans will enable counties, cities, and special
districts, in cooperation with regional water quality control boards
and stakeholder groups, to finance, construct, implement, operate,
and maintain pollution controls and facilities necessary to improve
water quality. By doing so, this act encourages local agencies to
develop and implement their own long-term, locally based projects to
remedy water pollution. Cities, counties, and special districts
throughout California are increasingly implementing successful and
cooperative drainage area, stormwater, and dry weather runoff
detention, capture, natural treatment, manmade wetland, and
infiltration projects on a more regional scale.
   (d) Planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, operating, and
financing of facilities and systems for diversion, interception, or
collection of urban runoff, stormwater subject to waste discharge
requirements, and nonpoint source pollution, the treatment of these
waters and pollutants, the return of diverted waters to receiving
water bodies, the enhancement of beneficial uses of waters of the
state, and the beneficial use or reuse of diverted waters are an
essential part of providing effective sewer, water, and refuse
collection services, and are necessary for compliance with water
quality laws and regulations, attainment of water quality standards,
as well as the maintenance of public health.
   (e) The presence of refuse and other pollutants in runoff is a
serious problem, as indicated by the adoption of trash total maximum
daily loads and water quality standards relating to trash and other
constituents of runoff. The planning, financing, implementation,
construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities to manage
urban runoff, stormwater, and nonpoint source pollution are therefore
necessary for, and constitute an integral part of, refuse collection
services and services dedicated to supplying clean water for human
use, and are a necessary response to the scheme of water quality
regulation and to the maintenance of public health.
   (f) During heavy rains, stormwater and urban runoff can overwhelm
sewer systems, causing sewage to mix with stormwater and urban
runoff. Leaks from sanitary sewers allow sewage to pollute runoff
water. These water-bourne sources of sewage can make their way to the
coastal zone, resulting in beach closures and related public health
problems. Also, diffuse sources of bacteria affect the quality of
urban runoff and stormwater, contributing to reduced coastal water
quality. Providing for the financing, planning, designing,
constructing, and operating of facilities to manage urban runoff,
stormwater, and nonpoint source pollution is therefore necessary for,
and constitutes an integral part of, effective sewer systems, and is
a necessary response to the scheme of water quality regulation, and
to the maintenance of public health.
   (g) The control of pollution in urban runoff, stormwater, other
forms of runoff, and nonpoint source pollution is not part of flood
control, and facilities for these purposes, even if combined with and
useful for flood control as well as water quality, are not drainage
systems.
  SEC. 2.  Chapter 27 (commencing with Section 16100) is added to
Division 7 of the Water Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 27.  CALIFORNIA WATERSHED IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2009


   16100.  This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
California Watershed Improvement Act of 2009.
   16101.  (a) Each county, city, or special district that is a
permittee or copermittee under a national pollutant discharge
elimination system (NPDES) permit for municipal separate storm sewer
systems may develop, either individually or jointly with one or more
permittees or copermittees, a watershed improvement plan that
addresses major sources of pollutants in receiving water, stormwater,
urban runoff, or other surface runoff pollution within the watershed
or subwatershed to which the plan applies. The principal purpose of
a watershed improvement plan is to implement existing and future
water quality requirements and regulations by, among other things,
identifying opportunities for stormwater detention, use of natural
treatment systems, water recycling, reuse, and supply augmentation;
and providing programs and measures designed to promote, maintain, or
achieve compliance with water quality laws and regulations,
including water quality standards and other requirements of statewide
plans, regional water quality control plans, total maximum daily
loads, and NPDES permits.
   (b) The process of developing a watershed improvement plan shall
be open and transparent, and a county, city, special district, or
combination thereof, shall, to the extent feasible and appropriate,
solicit input from entities representing resource agencies, water
agencies, sanitation districts, the environmental community,
landowners, home builders, agricultural interests, and business and
industry representatives.
   (c) Each county, city, special district, or combination thereof
shall notify the appropriate regional board of its intention to
develop a watershed improvement plan. The regional board may, in its
discretion, participate in the preparation of the plan. A watershed
improvement plan shall be consistent with the regional board's water
quality control plan.
   (d) A watershed improvement plan shall include all of the
following elements relevant to the waters within the watershed or
subwatershed to which the plan applies:
   (1) A description of the watershed or subwatershed improvement
plan area, the rivers, streams, or manmade drainage channels within
the plan area, the agencies with regulatory jurisdiction over matters
to be addressed in the plan, the relevant receiving waters within or
downstream from the plan area, and the county, city, special
district, or combination thereof, participating in the plan.
   (2) A description of the proposed facilities and actions that will
improve the protection and enhancement of water quality and the
designated beneficial uses of waters of the state, consistent with
water quality laws and regulations.
   (3) Recommendations for appropriate action by any entity, public
or private, to facilitate achievement of, or consistency with, water
quality objectives, standards, total maximum daily loads, or other
water quality laws, regulations, standards, or requirements, a time
schedule for the actions to be taken, and a description of
appropriate measurement and monitoring to be undertaken to determine
improvement in water quality.
   (4) A coordinated economic analysis and financing plan that
identifies the costs, effectiveness, and benefits of water quality
improvements specified in the watershed improvement plan, and, where
feasible, incorporates user-based and cost recovery approaches to
financing, which place the cost of managing and treating surface
runoff pollution on the generators of the pollutants.
   (5) To the extent applicable, a description of regional best
management practices, watershed-based natural treatment systems,
low-flow diversion systems, stormwater capture, urban runoff capture,
other measures constituting structural treatment best management
practices, pollution prevention measures, low-impact development
strategies, and site design, source control, and treatment control
best management practices to promote improved water quality.
   (6) A description of the proposed structure, operations, powers,
and duties of the implementing entity for the watershed improvement
plan.
   16102.  A regional board may, if it deems appropriate, utilize
provisions of approved watershed improvement plans to promote
compliance with one or more of the regional board's regulatory plans
or programs.
   16103.  (a) In addition to making use of other financing
mechanisms that are available to local agencies to fund watershed
improvement plans and plan measures and facilities, a county, city,
special district, or combination thereof may impose fees on
activities that generate or contribute to runoff, stormwater, or
surface runoff pollution, to pay the costs of the preparation of a
watershed improvement plan, and the implementation of a watershed
improvement plan that is approved by a regional board, if the plan
will facilitate compliance with one or more water quality
requirements. Fees imposed pursuant to this section shall be
reasonably related to the actual or anticipated past, present, or
future adverse effects of the feepayer's activities. "Activities,"
for purposes of this subdivision, include all the activities,
operations, and existing structures and improvements subject to
regulation under an NPDES permit for municipal separate storm sewer
systems.
   (b) A county, city, special district, or combination thereof may
plan, design, implement, construct, operate, and maintain controls
and facilities to improve water quality, including controls and
facilities related to the diversion, interception, or collection of
surface runoff, including urban runoff, stormwater, and other forms
of runoff, the treatment of pollutants in runoff or other waters
subject to water quality regulatory requirements, the return of
diverted and treated waters to receiving water bodies, the
enhancement of beneficial uses of waters of the state, or the
beneficial use or reuse of diverted waters.
   (c) The fees authorized under subdivision (a) may be imposed as
user-based or regulatory fees consistent with this chapter.