Report 2017-118 Recommendations

Once the State Water Board has developed cost-estimation guidance, the regional boards should follow this guidance.

To ensure that information regarding funding options available to local jurisdictions is consistent and current, the State Water Board and regional boards should work together to provide accurate information on their websites that is readily accessible, and the State Water Board and regional boards should remove outdated information by May 2018.

To promote the establishment of appropriate pollutant limits, the Legislature should amend state law to direct the State Water Board to assess whether a study of a specific water body is justified and, if so, to require the appropriate regional board to ensure that the study is conducted by the regional board or the applicable local jurisdictions. For example, a study could be justified if the water body's condition might warrant modifying a maximum pollutant level, if the study could be performed cost-effectively, and if the study's benefits are likely to reduce local jurisdictions' costs or improve protection of the water body's uses. The State Water Board should seek additional funding for local jurisdictions to conduct studies if it believes additional resources are needed.

Once the State Water Board has developed cost-estimation guidance, the regional boards should follow this guidance.

To ensure that information regarding funding options available to local jurisdictions is consistent and current, the State Water Board and regional boards should work together to provide accurate information on their websites that is readily accessible, and the State Water Board and regional boards should remove outdated information by May 2018.

Los Angeles should correct its pollutant control plan where it miscalculated two pollutant limits.

Once the State Water Board has developed cost-estimation guidance, the regional boards should follow this guidance.

To ensure that information regarding funding options available to local jurisdictions is consistent and current, the State Water Board and regional boards should work together to provide accurate information on their websites that is readily accessible, and the State Water Board and regional boards should remove outdated information by May 2018.

San Francisco Bay should comply with federal regulations and require local jurisdictions to report annually the projected and actual costs of complying with their permits.

The State Water Board should develop guidance by August 2018 for regional boards to document estimates of the costs local jurisdictions will incur in order to comply with pollutant control plans. These procedures should also address the need to use appropriate methods to develop those estimates, to document the sources they use to develop the estimates, and to document consideration of the overall cost of storm water management to local jurisdictions when completing an economic analysis as part of developing pollutant control plans. Additionally, the documentation of cost estimates should include, where applicable, the impact other pollutant control plans will have on the costs local jurisdictions are expected to incur.

To ensure that the regional boards obtain adequate and consistent information on the storm water management costs local jurisdictions incur, the State Water Board should develop statewide guidance by August 2018 for local jurisdictions on methods for tracking the cost of storm water management. If the State Water Board believes it does not have the expertise to develop such guidance, it should hire or contract with an expert in municipal finance who can assist in developing that guidance.

If the State Water Board believes regulations are necessary to ensure that the regional boards and local jurisdictions follow its guidance regarding adequate and consistent information pertaining to their costs for storm water management, the State Water Board should adopt such regulations.

Once it has distributed its guidance, the State Water Board should work with the regional boards to develop an annual review process of the information the regional boards receive to help ensure its consistency with the guidance.

Until the Legislature amends state law, the State Water Board should provide guidance to the regional boards on when studies of specific water bodies should be conducted and assist the regional boards in obtaining funding for those studies.

The State Water Board should direct its staff and those of the regional boards to revise their storm water management requirements when staff become aware of changing circumstances that would make certain monitoring by local jurisdictions unnecessary.

The State Water Board should revise its trash policy to focus it on local jurisdictions that have water bodies that are harmed by trash, as identified by the polluted waters list. In addition, the State Water Board should review the polluted waters list at least biannually to identify any additional water bodies recently determined to be harmed by trash and impose its trash policy on the applicable jurisdictions.

To ensure that information regarding funding options available to local jurisdictions is consistent and current, the State Water Board and regional boards should work together to provide accurate information on their websites that is readily accessible, and the State Water Board and regional boards should remove outdated information by May 2018.

To better provide comprehensive information on funding sources and storm water financial management for local jurisdictions, the State Water Board should create a committee by August 2018 to identify the informational needs of jurisdictions and create best practices for storm water financial management and financial approaches. This committee should include representatives from the State Water Board's Division of Financial Assistance, the regional boards, and various local jurisdictions.