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The
Basin Plan
The basic policy document for the Regional
Board is the "Water Quality Control
Plan/Los Angeles Region," also known
as the "Basin Plan." This
document designates beneficial uses of waterbodies,
sets water quality objectives to protect
the uses, addresses localized water quality
problems, and lays out a plan for water
quality protection. This document
is updated on a regular basis. Basin
Plans are amended only after the public
has had ample opportunity to provide input
and receive feedback. Amendments to
the Basin Plan must be approved by the State
Board, the State Office of Adminstrative
Law, and in some cases, the US EPA, before
they become effective.
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Individual
Permits
The Regional Board issues individual permits/waste
discharge requirements for many of the activities
mentioned above. Once a discharger has submitted
a completed application to the Board, staff
drafts a tentative permit and circulates
it to interested parties. Within certain
limits, the details of the permit can be
modified based on comments from the discharger
or others. If all interested
parties agree on the details, the permit
will be presented to the Board as an uncontested
item. The Board adopts the vast majority
of these items without discussion.
If interested parties and staff cannot agree
on the details of the permit, then it is
taken to the Board for a public hearing,
where Board members decide on the final
requirements in the permit. The permits
set limits on what may be discharged, and
may contain time schedules for future activities
such as upgrading treatment systems.
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General
Permits
General permits are used to regulate polluted
storm water runoff, treated groundwater,
non-hazardous soil disposal, and other discharge.
When a general permit is initially adopted
or amended, the process is similar to the
one described for individual permits.
Storm water permits do not contain effluent
limits (except for certain industrial categories),
rather they require certain practices by
implemented by the discharger to control
strom water pollutants.
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Cleanup
Orders
Cleanup
orders can order or direct cleanup of pollution
or threats of pollution from activities
such as spills, leaks (e.g., from storage
tanks), or past disposal practices (whether
or not they were legal at the time of disposal).
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DOD/DOE
Program
This
program is involved in the cleanup of federal
facilities owned or operated by the Department
of Defense (DOD) or the Department of Energy
(DOE). The lead state agency in these
cleanups in usually the Department of Toxic
Substances Control (DTSC), with the Regional
Board taking a supporting role. In
those cases where DTSC is the lead, public
involvement will be coordinated through
it. Where the Regional Board is the
lead, cleanup will be regulated as described
in this brochure.
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Water
Quality Certifications
Water
quality certifications apply to filling
and dredging projects (see activities 9
and 10 from previous list). These include
residential and commercial developments
along with flood control and debris basin
maintenance. For small projects, the Board
can waive certification, if after reviewing
the proposed project, staff determines that
water quality standards will be met.
For larger projects, and for those where
standards will not be met, the Board may
either recommend that certification be granted
with conditions or denied. The State
Board's Executive Director makes final certification
decisions, usually following the Regional
Board's recommendations. If certification
is denied, the project cannot proceed.
The Board has many of the same concerns
as the Army Corps of Engineers, the lead
regulatory agency in fill and dredging matters.
However, the Board looks beyond the Corps'
immediate jurisdiction to assure that water
quality standards are met. For example,
the Board will consider the nature of runoff
from surrounding areas and what impact it
could have on existing or created wetlands
and associated waterbodies, and may require
measures to control that runoff.
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13267
Letters
"13267"
refers to a particular section of the California
Water Code. Letters written
pursuant to this section allow the Board
to require businesses or other parties to
submit technical reports on water quality
matters. The law requires that the
request for information be reasonable.
The Board often uses these letteres at the
start of a cleanup case in order to get
sufficient information to prepare appropriate
orders. Compliance with these requests
is mandatory, and non-compliance can lead
to penalties.
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Fees
Most
programs have fees associated with them
that are charged to the discharger.
Permits have annual fees ranging from $250
to $10,000. Water Quality Certifications
require a filing fee ranging from $500 to
$10,000. The Board can recover staff costs
for the investigation and supervision of
cleanups.
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Monitoring
All
permits and cleanup orders will require
the discharger to monitor the site and its
discharge. Orders will specify the
kind of monitoring necessary, which can
range from simple visual observations to
extensive chemical analysis of waste waters
and the receiving waters.
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Reporting
All
permits require the facility to submit periodic
monitoring reports to the Regional Board.
Dischargers must also report on compliance
with time schedules contained in orders.
Finally, dischargers must report any incident
that could impact water quality, such as
spills or permit violations. Reports
filed with the Board are available to the
public.
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Inspections
Board
staff routinely inspect sites regulated
by the Board. These inspections normally
include observing the site, reviewing records
such as pollution prevention plans, and/or
sampling to verify the self-monitoring results
reported by the facility.
Staff will also inspect other sites not
covered by permits if there is a possibility
the site may impact water quality. Staff
may also conduct inspections in response
to complaints or spill reports.
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Enforcement
Whenever
there is a violation of a permit condition,
or a violation of a water quality standard
as an unpermitted
facility, the Regional Board can take enforcement
action. Water quality standards
are numerical or descriptive objectives
for the beneficial uses to be protected.
Therefore, any discharge that impacts the
use of a waterbody such as a source of drinking
water or fish habitat, or exceeds an objective,
would violate standards and, therefore,
be enforceable. The Board has several
enforcement options, including orders, fines,
or judicial referrals.
For short-term cleanups, requiring immediate
action, such as after a spill, an erosion
problem, or a waste pond overflow, the Board
uses Cleanup and Abatement Orders (CAO).
A CAO is usually issued directly by the
Board's Executvie Officer without negotiations
or public hearings. The order lists
specific actions that must be done by the
discharger and a time schedule for those
actions.
The Board can also issue a Cease and Desist
Order for permit violations. This
type of order is prepared by staff, with
some option for negotiations available.
The Board makes final decisions at a public
hearing. These orders usually include
time schedules for specific activities and
sometimes set interim permit limits.
The Board has the authority to impose fines,
called Administrative Civil Liabilities
(ACLs), if a discharger violates permit
conditions, standards, or time schedules.
ACLs can also be used for late or imcomplete
reports that were required to be submitted
pursuant to a 13267 letter. The amount
of an ACL can be based on the volume of
an illegal discharge (up to $10 per gallon),
the duration of an illegal discharge (up
to $10,000 per day), or on the length of
time a report is late (up to $1,000 per
day).
To assess an ACL, staff prepares a complaint
that notes the violations and proposes a
fine. The discharger can either choose
to pay the fine and waive a hearing before
the Board, or to proceed with a hearing.
If there is a hearing, the Board can uphold
staff's position or raise, lower, or dismiss
the fine. In some cases, dischargers
have proposed, and the Board has accepted,
environmental projects in lieu of a fine.
In these cases, a portion of the fine may
be suspended until the project is completed.
Payment of that portion of the fine may
be canceled. It is Board policy that
at least some portion of a fine be paid
to the State even if there is an environmental
project. Board staff time costs are usually
recovered in the fine.
A final option the Board has for enforcement
is to refer a case to the Attorney General
or a District Attorney for prosecution in
the courts. These kinds of cases can
be either civil or criminal, and remedies
include fines that are significantly higher
than ACLs, injunctions, or in criminal cases,
jail sentences.
Citizens may file suit to enforce permit
conditions for any federal permit the Board
issues. Under this option, the citizen,
or a group of citizens (such as environmental
organization), must give 60 days notice
of intent to sue. If the Board takes
an enforcement action during that time,
it usually negates the citizen action.
If the Board chooses not to pursue enforcement,
then the citizen suit can proceed
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Appeals
All
actions or inactions by the Regional Board
can be appealed to the State Water Resources
Control Board. The State Board can
either uphold the Regional Board action,
reverse it, send the matter back to the
Regional Board with additional instructions,
or choose not to consider the appeal.
Any party may appeal a Regional Board action,
or inaction, not just the party being regulated.
Appeals must be made within 30 days of the
Regional Board's action and can be done
by writing a letter to the State Board.
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Nonpoint
Source Pollution
Nonpoint
pollution comes from diffuse sources of
pollutants running off the land.
Sources include urban runoff, construction,
agriculture, forestry, grazing, boating
and other activities. Some of these
are already regulated by the Board, including
runoff from some urban, industrial, or construction
activities. Any activity that produes
significant water pollution may be regulated
by the Board, including enforcement.
However, it is state-wide policy to generally
work with potential sources of nonpoint
pollution, e.g., ranchers or farmers, to
voluntarily solve any problems.
More standard regulation, such as permits
and enforcement, is usually only done when
the voluntary approach does not work.
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