Resources: water quality: stormwater resource plans.

(1) The Watershed, Clean Beaches, and Water Quality Act authorizes the Water Resources Control Board, in consultation with the State Coastal Conservancy, to award grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations for projects designed to restore and protect the water quality and environment of coastal waters, estuaries, bays, and near shore waters, including, among other things, a project to make improvements to, or upgrades or conversions of, existing sewer collection systems and septic systems for the restoration and protection of coastal water quality. This bill would also authorize grants for projects designed to implement or promote low-impact development for new or existing developments that will contribute to the improvement of water quality or reduce stormwater runoff and for projects designed to implement specified stormwater resource plans. (2) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater in accordance with the national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit program and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law authorizes a regional water management group, as defined, to adopt an integrated regional water management plan that addresses specified matters. This bill would authorize a city, county, or special district to develop, jointly or individually, stormwater resource plans that meet certain standards. The bill would authorize a regional water management group to coordinate its planning activities to address or incorporate into its plan any stormwater resource planning that is undertaken pursuant to the bill's provisions.