Water quality: permits.

Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality and prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the federal national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit program established by the federal Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law requires each regional board to formulate and adopt water quality control plans for all areas within the region, as provided. Existing law authorizes the state board to require a person submitting a report to the state board, a regional board, or a local agency to submit the report in electronic format. This bill would require, on or before December 31, 2025, the state board to update its stormwater data collection systems and software through specified actions. The bill would require the state board, after making the necessary findings, to establish a statewide commercial, industrial, and institutional NPDES order regulating stormwater and authorized nonstormwater discharges from facilities with impervious surfaces that are significant contributors of pollutants to federally protected surface waters, as determined by the state board. The bill would require the state board to publish a draft order of the statewide order for public comment on or before December 31, 2026, or 18 months after the reissuance of a specified statewide permit, as specified. The bill would require the state board to contemporaneously develop a model memorandum of understanding to issue with the publication of the draft statewide order for public comments that details the necessary components of an agreement between commercial, industrial, and institutional permittees and local municipalities for achieving offsite stormwater capture and use within the adopted final statewide commercial, industrial, and institutional NPDES order. The bill would require the NPDES order to include multiple options to achieve compliance with water quality standards, including, but not limited to, compliance options incentivizing onsite or offsite stormwater capture and use. The bill would make the operation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation for its purposes by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute. Existing law required the state board, no later than July 1, 2009, to develop a comprehensive guidance document for evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of municipal stormwater management programs and permits, as prescribed. Existing law requires the state board and regional boards to refer to the guidance document when establishing requirements in municipal stormwater programs and permits. This bill would require, on or before January 31, 2025, the state board to initiate a series of board workshops to evaluate the California stormwater program and the state's progress toward attainment of beneficial uses and compliance with water quality standards as they pertain to permits issued pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act. The bill would require, on or before December 31, 2026, and after holding public workshops and soliciting public comments, the state board to develop and submit to the Legislature a report, as prescribed, evaluating the state's progress toward, and recommendations to achieve, attainment of beneficial uses and compliance with water quality standards as they pertain to permits issued pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. The bill would require the report to include recommendations for the state board, regional boards, other relevant state agencies, and the Legislature to act upon to ensure permitting of stormwater discharges protects and supports attainment of beneficial uses and results in compliance with water quality objectives.