SIGNIFICANT NEW REQUIREMENTS OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF CALIFORNIA STORMWATER PERMITS

摘要

The 2012/2013 California Phase I Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits present regulated municipal agencies with a number of new and daunting wet-weather and dry-weather challenges. These challenges include potentially significant (and underfunded) implementation requirements to meet stringent Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and Water Quality Based Effluent Limits (WQBELs). These requirements, coupled with the uncertainties associated with compliance assessment, offer new and unique challenges to municipal agencies. While these permits are among the first in the nation to require quantitative demonstration of future compliance with WQBELs, California agencies are not unique in their lack of sufficient funding to support stormwater programs. As such, regulatory agencies and MS4s in California can both benefit from working collab-oratively and adaptively to integrate new data and uncertainty analyses into MS4 permit compliance evaluations and restoration of beneficial uses.