AWWA REUSE52078

The Newport Bay Watershed is located in central Orange County, California, in the southwest corner of the Santa Ana River Basin. California is an National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) state and administers the Clean Water Act under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act. This act set up the State Water Resources Control Board as the primary governing body, but to allow for regional differences, also set up nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards to administer NPDES and other Clean Water Act programs. Therefore, when the US Environmental Protection Agency entered into a Consent Decree with 'Defend the Bay', a Newport Bay public interest group, to establish Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) identified on the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) 303(d) list, the duty to determine assimilative pollutant capacity of Newport Bay, set waste load and load allocations, then develop management plans to implement water quality requirements according to the schedule in the Consent Decree fell upon the Regional Board. Should the Regional Board fail to meet the requirements of the Consent Decree, the EPA will independently establish TMDLs and require the Regional Board to enforce them. This paper describes the TMDL process followed by the Regional Board in developing sediment, nutrient and pathogen TDMLs. Includes tables.