Introduction to Stormwater Program

Water pollution degrades surface waters making them unsafe for drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities. The 1972 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act prohibit the discharge of any pollutant to navigable waters from a point source unless the discharge is authorized by a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. In 1987, the passage of the Water Quality Act established NPDES permit requirements for discharges of stormwater. The NPDES permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. Section 402(p) (2) of the federal Clean Water Act lists five types of stormwater discharges required to obtain a NPDES permit. Since 1990, operators of stormwater systems such as Orange County’s have been required to:

• Develop a stormwater management program designed to prevent harmful pollutants from being dumped or washed by stormwater runoff, into the stormwater system, then discharged into local waterbodies.
• Obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

In most cases, the NPDES permit program is administered by authorized states. In California, these programs are administered by the State Water Resources Control Board and by nine regional boards that issue NPDES permits and enforce regulations within their respective region. Orange County lies within the jurisdiction of both the Santa Ana and San Diego Regions. These two regional boards issued our first municipal NPDES permit in 1990 to the “Orange County Stormwater Program,” a partnership between the County, all cities within Orange County, and the O.C. Flood Control District. Since the program’s inception, the County has served as the principal permitee.

NPDES permits are issued for a five-year term and have generally followed a progressive pattern. Our first permit provided an opportunity for Orange County municipalities to establish a program customized to local conditions. In its earliest form, the Orange County Stormwater Program focused on gathering data about existing conditions and implementing an initial set of improvement measures aimed at known water quality deficiencies. Our second permit, issued in 1996, was built upon the knowledge gained during the first permit period and was intended to improve water quality incrementally over time. During the second permit term Orange County also invested heavily in parallel efforts to implement a watershed approach, a comprehensive but lengthy planning tool for addressing water quality as well as habitat restoration, recreation, and flood control.