Stormwater Permit
Stormwater Permit Facts
August 2007
What is Stormwater pollution?
Stormwater is rainwater that becomes polluted once earthbound, with pollution coming from multiple, diverse land uses in our communities. Sources of stormwater pollution include driveways, streets, parking lots, lawns, construction sites, agricultural fields, failing sewer systems, and illicit discharges such as dumping of waste motor oil. Pollutants found in stormwater runoff include heavy metals, oil, grease, sediment, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, bacteria, and trash. When it rains, these pollutants are washed through our streets and storm drains directly into rivers and the ocean without treatment.
What is a Stormwater Permit?
The Clean Water Act is a U.S. federal law that regulates the discharge of pollutants into the nation's surface waters, including lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and coastal areas. Early efforts to reduce water pollution focused on traditional point source dischargers such as industry, and waste treatment facilities. In 1987, Congress amended the Clean Water Act to address municipal stormwater discharges. All governmental agencies responsible for discharging water from any source, including the stormwater drainage system, into rivers or oceans must meet the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) requirements of the Clean Water Act. The requirements are detailed in a NPDES permit, which outlines the specific actions under which agencies are "permitted" to discharge to waterways.
What is the Ventura Countywide Stormwater Program?
Since 1992, the 10 cities the Ventura County Watershed Protection District and the County of Ventura have worked collaboratively to meet clean water regulations as the Countywide Stormwater Program (Program). In 2003, the Ventura Countywide Stormwater Program received U.S. EPA's National Clean Water Act Award for Stormwater Management Excellence. This award-winning Program, a model of water quality protection in Ventura County, highlights our community's support for clean water and safe beaches.
How is the Program permitted?
Each of these public entities operates separate municipal storm drain systems and discharge stormwater under the Ventura Countywide Stormwater NPDES permit (Permit). Issued by the State of California, Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB), the first municipal stormwater Permit for Ventura County was issued in 1994 and a second in 2000.
What are the current issues?
In December 2006, the LARWQCB released a Draft 2006 Permit that may be the strictest in the nation. There are approximately 75 new or additional requirements identified in the Draft 2006 Permit. The Program supports the intent of several requirements in the Draft 2006 Permit as they will lead to cleaner water and promote environmental sustainability; however, other proposed requirements are potentially counterproductive and prohibitively expensive, necessitating alternative approaches that still protect water quality.
Trash: The Draft 2006 Permit requires the installation of screens on all storm drain inlets preventing entry of any materials larger than 5mm. One-time installation costs could cost upwards of $2 million for one city's 1800 inlets. The Program is requesting alternative language that would allow for a trash maintenance program to include additional litter pick-up, street sweeping, placement of additional trash cans in high commercial areas, and the installation of screens in storm drain inlets not prone to flooding.
Municipal Action Limits: The Draft 2006 Permit is the first in the nation to require that stormwater runoff from storm drains meet pollutant levels (referred to as Municipal Action Limits). Failure to meet these limits could lead to fines of $10,000/day. The Draft 2006 Permit limits are based upon national averages of communities with much higher annual rainfall than we experience in Southern California. Consultants have indicated that 80 percent of our Program's storm drains will fail to meet the Municipal Action Limits contained within the Draft 2006 Permit. With the many pollutant sources in our neighborhoods, it is likely to be impossible to meet these levels without very expensive end-of-pipe treatment, particularly with sources beyond the Program's control, such as schools and agriculture. The Program is requesting that Municipal Action Limits be used as an assessment tool rather than a compliance point. The Program is also requesting the limits be established based upon extensive Southern California data developed over the past 15 years.
Land Development: The Draft 2006 Permit includes extensive new requirements for new and redevelopment projects. The Program is concerned these requirements will make it more difficult to implement Smart Growth development principals, which provide a more environmentally sustainable way for public entities to provide needed housing.
Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs): The TMDL program, also mandated by the Clean Water Act, requires each state to identify waters impaired. If a waterbody is found to have beneficial uses impaired due to a pollutant, then a TMDL is required. A TMDL is developed by calculating the maximum amount of a pollutant a water body can receive and still achieve water quality objectives. Pollutant allocations are then assigned to each responsible party for their point and non-point pollutant sources.
Several TMDLs have been adopted (and many others are proposed) for the Calleguas and Malibu Creeks, Santa Clara and Ventura Rivers, and other coastal watersheds and beaches. For the first time, this Draft 2006 Permit incorporates TMDLs through the Countywide Stormwater Permit. The cost of implementing these TMDLs is not fully known, but based upon the examples of TMDLs implemented in other areas of Southern California the cost is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Cost: Based upon what Draft 2006 Permit requirements and what TMDLs are included in the final Permit, the total cost Countywide is anticipated to range from a high of $130 million to a low of $20 million. On average the Program is projected to cost upwards of $400 per household for the full compliance scenario under the Draft 2006 Permit.
For example, the City of Ventura currently spends approximately $1.2 million per year on an effective stormwater program which also complies with existing permit requirements. Early cost estimates project that number to rise to over $4 million annually to fund the proposed additional permit activities. Some of the activities include increased business inspections, development review and compliance, public outreach, storm drain inspections, reports and studies.
Currently there is only one dedicated funding mechanism in place to cover stormwater costs in Ventura County, the Watershed Protection District's Benefit Assessment Program. In Fiscal Year 2006-2007, the entire Program reported costs of approximately $13.5 million. Benefit Assessment revenues collected and distributed amounted to only $1.63 million (approximately 12 percent of cost) that year. The cost to the Principal Program (includes Program Administration and Reporting, Public Outreach and Water Quality Monitoring) for compliance with the Draft 2006 Permit is estimated to be $3.4 million (double the cost under the current permit). There is no available funding mechanism at this time to cover the additional or future costs for this program.
What are the next steps?
The Draft 2006 Permit is currently in a public review process, which provides an opportunity for all stakeholders to comment. The Ventura Countywide Stormwater Program, the Building Industry of America, the California Association of Stormwater Quality Agencies, Los Angeles County, Heal the Bay, and other cities in California are meeting with LARWQCB staff to discuss possible solutions and are submitting comments. The next public workshop will be held on September 20 in the Council Chambers of the Ventura City Hall. A Draft Tentative Permit is expected in August. Comments on the second draft of the Permit are due October 15, 2007. A Draft Tentative Permit is forthcoming. The final Permit is expected to be adopted in March 2008.
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