THE SAN DIEGO REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (San Diego Regional Board) is charged with regulating surface and ground water quality within the area stretching along 85 miles of scenic coastline from Laguna Beach in Orange County to the Mexican border, and extending 50 miles inland to the crest of the coastal mountain range. It is one of the nine Regional Boards within California that report directly to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board), which has overall responsibility for setting statewide policy on water quality control. The San Diego Regional Board is comprised of nine part-time members who are appointed by the Governor for four-year terms. Work is carried out by a technical and administrative staff organized into distinct program units and supervised by an executive officer. Among other duties, the San Diego Regional Board is responsible for implementing the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Diego Basin, or Basin Plan as it is more commonly known, and for issuing waste discharge requirements to industrial, construction, and municipal entities whose activities may result in the discharge of water or pollutants to local water bodies.

The most basic goal of the Regional Board is to preserve and enhance the quality of water resources in the San Diego Region for the benefit of present and future generations. The Basin Plan is the Regional Board’s roadmap for accomplishing this goal and for attaining a balance between the competing uses of surface and ground water quality. It designates beneficial uses and water quality objectives for all ground and surface waters in the region. Beneficial uses are the uses of water necessary for the survival and well-being of man, plants, and wildlife. Water quality objectives are the levels of water quality constituents or characteristics that must be met to protect these beneficial uses. A key component of the Basin Plan is an implementation program that describes the actions that are to be taken by the Regional Board and others to achieve and maintain the designated beneficial uses and water quality objectives in regional waters.

The Regional Board’s primary means of protecting water quality is the issuance of waste discharge requirements (WDRs), water reclamation requirements (WRRs), and similar permits to individual dischargers. A discharger may be defined several different ways (i.e., a construction site operator, a business engaged in industrial activities, a wastewater treatment plant, or a municipality). Waste discharge requirements impose limits on the quality and quantity of allowable waste discharges and specify conditions to be maintained in the waters receiving these discharges. In other words, it is illegal to discharge wastes into any waters of the State or to reuse treated wastewater without obtaining the appropriate permits. The San Diego Regional Board enforces these permits through a variety of administrative means.

Click here to read more about key water quality issues in the San Diego Region. Or visit the San Diego Regional Board’s website to explore further.