Transcript Dragon Tails - Contra Costa Clean Water Program

Dragon Tails
Or, how we learned to stop worrying
about permit compliance and love
SUSMPs [a fairy tale?]
Greg Gearheart, PE
Stormwater Program / SWRCB
The Tail End
• Our mission is to preserve and
enhance the quality of CA’s water
resources, and ensure their
proper allocation and efficient
use for the benefit of present and
future generations.
• Who are the present and future
generations?
Millions of Californians
• 1980 – 23.7 million
• 2005 – 37 million
• 2030 – 48 million (projected)
• where?
What are some examples
of water resources we
should protect?
• Wetlands and streams, including:
– Riparian areas
– Intermittent, ephemeral and headwater
streams
– Isolated “wetlands” (e.g., vernal pools)
• Watershed functions and values
• Protect from what?
Paradise Lost – why are they
special?
• California has lost 95% of our inland wetlands
and streams since 1850's due to “development”
• They are a critical part of the watershed:
– support BUs onsite
– maintain the "quality of the water" of watershed
– provide critical watershed functions like
generating/moving/storing sediment, removing
pollutants, retaining flood flows, and supporting
habitat connectivity
Why do they need special
protection?
• Highly sensitive ecosystems
• Most threatened by landscape activities
(urbanitis, development, industry, etc.)
• It is much more difficult to regulate
landscape activities than it is to control
point discharges
• It is very difficult to restore them once
they are gone
What human activities impact
wetlands and streams?
• Bank hardening (rip rap, concrete,
refrigerators, cars, etc.)
• Dams and diversions
• Development (stream/swale burial,
realignment, concrete-lining, etc.)
• “Agricultural” activities (vineyard
development, dairy waste, cattle,
stream crossings, clear-cut erosion,
etc.)
Could this happen
today?
(Chicken Ranch Slough,
Sacramento County –
Channelized in 1950's)
CWA 401 regulatory actions at
Water Boards for 2003
• 1094 401-related Projects Statewide
– 26 projects denied certification
– 12 project-related enforcement actions
• 1880 acres of fill to State waters
(includes 1280 acres temp. fill)
• 600 acres of permanently filled
wetlands/streams/etc.
• 1082 acres of compensatory mitigation
Water Boards nuts and
bolts
• Our regulatory actions (e.g., CWA401
Certs, WDRs, enforcement, etc.) require
discharges to be protective of our water
quality (WQ) standards:
– Water quality standard = beneficial uses +
objectives
– Water Boards may “choose to prevent any
degradation”
– Statewide General WDRs
• for dredge/fill and linear projects
CWA - Water Quality
Standards
• Water Quality Standards are made up of:
– Beneficial Uses (designated to
specific waterbodies), plus
– water quality criteria; and
– an antidegradation policy.
• Beneficial Uses (BUs) are:
• often not directly related to some key
water resource uses valued by
communities (it might take a suite of
them to protect wetlands and streams,
for example)
Beneficial Uses Used to
Protect California Wetlands &
Streams
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AGR – Agricultural Supply
FLD – Flood Peak
Attenuation/Flood Water
Storage
FRSH – Freshwater
Replenishment
GWR – Groundwater
Recharge
MAR – Marine Habitat
MUN – Municipal and
Domestic Supply
RARE – Preservation of Rare
and Endangered Species
•
REC-1 – Water Contact
Recreation
•
REC-2 – Non-Water Contact
Recreation
•
SHELL – Shellfish Harvesting
•
SPAWN – Fish Spawning
•
WARM – Warm Freshwater
Habitat
•
WILD – Wildlife Habitat
•
WQE – Water Quality
Enhancement
Beneficial uses (BUs) and
wetlands / streams
• BUs are:
– designated in the Basin Plans to a specific
waterbody at a specific location
– are not easily translated to some key
wetland/stream functions and values
– frequently it takes a suite of BUs to cover
“wetland functions and values” (often includes
gaps and overlaps)
Functional Framework:
Regulatory Tools
• Landscape / watershed tool(s):
– Storm water permits
– CEQA ?
• Waterbody tool(s):
– CWA 401 Certifications
– Waste Discharge Requirements
– Waivers
• Laparoscopic techniques
CWA – Permits
• Section 402 – Point Sources
– The National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) –
applies to all point sources of
pollutants
– Stormwater outfalls are considered
“point sources” and these regulations
apply to:
• Industrial Sources (including Construction
Activities)
• Municipal Sources (large and small
communities)
CWS - NPDES Permits
(cont.)
• Traditional “Point Sources” still
need attention in sustainable
growth context:
–
–
–
–
Wastewater Treatment Plants
Collection Systems
Factories and mills
E.g., the City of Petaluma building a
new sustainable system to handle both
domestic wastewater and stormwater
•CWA – Dredge and Fill
Discharges
• Section 404/401 – regulate the direct
discharges of dredge and fill material to US
Waters
• US Army Corps issues 404 permit, which
triggers the State's “401 Certification” (that
the project complies with our standards)
• “401 Certifications” are one-time compliance
tools that apply to many new developments in
California, due in part to our abundance of
ephemeral and intermittent streams
• CWC jurisdiction covers isolated waters of
the State
401 Certification - One-time
compliance measurement
• CWA 401 certification process give the Water
Boards one shot at evaluating compliance with our
“standards”
• If we get our permitting wrong, the waterbodies
and their designated beneficial uses could be lost
forever
• Could be a de-facto Basin Plan amendment
• Interesting question: does this process
adequately comply with our Basin Plan
amendment requirements?
CWA – Total Maximum Daily
Loads (TMDLs)
• If the beneficial uses are
impaired, the State must adopt
a TMDL
• Result in pollutant Waste
Loads Allocations – WLAs –
applied to “all” sources in
watershed
• TMDLs take decades to
implement
CWA – TMDLs
• They are watershed-based, but
they are also pollutant (or
impairment cause) specific, so
they may or may not lead
communities towards more
sustainable approaches to
Water Resource planning
• Resulting WLAs are
implemented via permits
Sustainability and Water
Resources
• Sustainability has many
definitions and applications
(some very specialized)
• In our communities there are
three main test / elements
(each of which is undergoing a
paradigm shift today).
Sustainability Tests
• Resource – protection to enhancement and
reuse (“runoff is a resource”)
• Technical – complex, technological
standard-based to simple, natural,
performance-based solutions
• Institutional – centralized, subsidized
approaches to decentralized, self-supporting
approaches
• Community – healthy individual, societal
cost driven equations to healthy community,
community opportunity equations
NPDES Stormwater Permits
– help or hindrance?
• Municipal Separate Storm Sewer
Systems (MS4s), in both large and small
communities, are required to comply with
MS4 requirements
• Much of the permit requirements focus on
traditional BMPs and general, indirect
municipal efforts (like general planning,
outreach/education etc.)
• In 2002, Standard Urban Storm Water
Mitigation Plans (SUSMPs – but they are
called “performance standards” in some
parts of the State) became mandatory for
all MS4 permits
SUSMPs & HMMPs &
Performance Standards,
oh my!
• SUSMPs - Standardized Urban Stormwater
Mitigation Plans
• HMMPs - Hydrograph Modification
Management Plans
• WQMPs
• Performance Standards – specifically for
new and redevelop activities in MS4s
SUSMP History (brief)
• 1996 - NPDES Permit for LA
County MS4s first suggested
SUSMPs (R4-1996-054)
• 1999 - NPDES Permit for LA
County Required “improved”
SUSMPs (R4-1999-060)
• 2000 - SB upheld RB4-99-060 with
WQ-2000-11
• Precedent - all new MS4 permits
after WQ-2000-11 must comply with
general principles of R4-1999-060
SUSMP lang.
SUSMPs and Sustainability
• SUSMPs and other “performance
standards” in MS4 permits require new
developments and, in some cases,
“significant” redevelopments to apply
rigorous measures to mitigate the effects of
urbanization.
• The technical approaches and science
behind some of the issues are still being
debated in the State.
• Q: Does Low Impact Development =
SUSMPs and HMP compliance?
Yes, LID = SUSMPs
• In theory, a well designed and
executed LID project would fully
comply with MS4 permit
requirements (and probably avoid
404/401 permits, too).
• Translators are needed to help
communities demonstrate
compliance with MS4 requirements
LID and SUSMPs (cont.)
• Clearly SUSMP=LID works best for
new development and significant
redevelopment
• But strategic LID projects could also be
used to retrofit urban landscapes to
address other watershed problems
• State Board staff are working on
developing translator tools for
municipal officials who must comply
with SUSMPs and wish to use LID-like
approaches
SUSMPs in the Regions
• As expected, most RBs took
the liberty to “improve” on the
SUSMP language in R4-1999060
• Some RBs have evolved at
least one generation since the
original SUSMP approach
Los Angeles Region
• SUSMP Architects
• Multiple generations – new draft
coming for Ventura County in June
2006:
– Numerical Hydromodification Criteria
based on Stream Bank Erosion
Potential
– Limiting Directly Connected
Impervious Area to no more than 5
pecent of Total Construction Project
Area
LA Region (cont.)
• Ventura updates (cont.)
– Low Impact Development
Technical Document to comply
with SUSMPs and Hydromod
Criteria
– Post Construction BMP
Inspection Program
– Stream Bank Restoration
Planning based on Southern CA
Integrated Biological Index
S.F. Bay Region:
One Permit Approach
• Phase I for 4 urbanized
counties
• Consistent requirements
• Consistent deadlines (with a
few exceptions)
• Detail formerly in Stormwater
Management Plans now in the
Permit
SF Bay Super Permit
(cont.)
• BMPs, Level of Implementation and
Reporting specified for all
Performance Standards
• Major improvements in Monitoring
and TMDL implementation
• Only minor changes to New
Development Measures,
Inspections, Public Information and
Municipal Maintenance
San Diego Region:
Watershed Approach
• Tackle priority stormwater problems in
each watershed, in addition to
Baseline BMPs
• Adding HMP requirements similar to
S.F. Bay Area approach
• Setting minimum inspection #
requirement
Other Regions &
Approaches within CA
• Santa Ana Region – like RB4
• Lahontan Region – no SUSMP
requirements
• North Coast Region – like RB2 (2
year, 24 hour storm event,
hydrograph modification
management plan, etc.)
• Central Coast Region – not sure
• Phase II
• Caltrans
Other States
•
•
•
•
•
MD – Recharge / LID credits
PA – Recharge
DE – Recharge / LID
NJ – Recharge / LID
[Handout available]
Sustainable Projects
Present Real Community
Opportunities
• If done right, more sustainable projects will
deliver:
– NPDES compliance
– Clean Water Act promises
– Low Lifetime Costs to operate, maintain,
decommission, etc.
– Community buy-in and support through
meeting multiple objectives, etc.
– Unpredictable community economic
opportunities (e.g., tourism and other
ancillary benefits to the community)
Evidence of Shift
• Performance measures that would
SHOW we are moving in the right
direction.
• NPDES permits for MS4s contain
LID-type requirements for New
Development
• Increased judicial support
Shift (cont.)
• Planning departments and land use
agencies are excited about natural
systems (we see this now)
• Natural Systems (low tech, natural
function-based technologies) are
embraced as cornerstones of
“sustainable development”
• A number of disciplines integrated
into stormwater management.
What can WE do to help
implement / enforce the
CWA?
• Appropriate designation, development and
enforcement of appropriate Beneficial Uses
would encourage smarter growth.
• We also need to develop effective criteria for
protecting uses from pollutants and/or habitat
disturbance associated with urbanization
impacts.
• Apply all our tools to encourage avoidance and
minimization of impacts through better siting
and management practices.
• Get out of the way of good practices
Greg Gearheart
916-341-5892
[email protected]