The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, part of the state’s environmental protection agency, approved comprehensive new regulations Friday afternoon that aim to reduce pollution in water from storm drains and flood control channels in the Santa Ana River Basin, which covers large parts of Orange and the Inland Empire counties.
The water agency’s new regulations, known as the “Regional MS4 Permit,” would affect Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as the Santa Ana River Basin stretches from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The new regulations would require local government agencies to implement systems to keep trash and other contaminants from polluting the waterway. The regulations will take effect in 90 days.
After hours of discussion at the Irvine Ranch Water District in Irvine, board members passed the regulations 3-to-1. John Scandura of Huntington Beach, along with Gloria Alvarado of Santa Ana and Sixto Lopez of Corona, voted to approve the sweeping permits. Board members Letitia Clark of Tustin and William Ruh of Montclair recused themselves from the vote.
Board member Kris Murray of Anaheim voted against the new regulations, saying moments before the vote, “Right now we have none of our jurisdictions in support of this permit.”
Santa Ana Water Board meetings, over the last several months on the now-approved runoff regulations, have drawn vocal opposition from local government agencies.
Among the critics is Dawn Rowe, chair of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Rowe argues that the regulations would place a heavy financial burden on county residents. At the last Santa Ana Water Board meeting in August, which allowed public dialogue to explore the issue, she said: “When we look at the cost that we have to add on to development or to our residents, many of our residents are disenfranchised; they are on the lower-income side. The county cannot absorb the cost that would be a tremendous increase to all of these counties for this permit, and so inevitably it would be passed on to our residents and businesses.”
San Bernardino County had commissioned a $37,000 economic impact report that indicates the proposed stormwater requirements would cost the county and 16 of its cities $11 billion over the next 20 years.
Amanda Carr, deputy director for Orange County Environmental Resources at OC Public Works, was at the Friday meeting. She also said that today’s technology and best management practice-related projects would likely not fully meet the strict bacteria numbers allowable under the new regulations.
“That’s the challenge that we have; I understand we don’t want to give up that aspirational goal, but when it comes down to the actual work, I don’t know if we can show you that we can get there,” Carr told board members.
In response, Board Chair Scandura said the new standards were “not designed for ease of compliance” or “designed to be cheap and easy to comply with,” but were based on extensive research, analysis, and peer review to determine the most protective number for the public.
“The whole purpose of these permits is to push people to meet those requirements, to develop new solutions, new technologies to address that,” said Scandura. “We just can’t continue to have the Santa Ana River and those tributaries contaminated with bacteria forever.”
While local governments have complained the new rules will be too costly, environmental groups including Orange County Coastkeeper have argued they don’t go far enough in protecting the watershed.