Enforcement

Watchdogging Enforcement of California’s Water Laws

CCKA and member Waterkeepers fight for full enforcement of state and federal water laws to ensure clean, abundant waters for California.  Regular CCKA advocacy to state agencies responsible for enforcing California’s water laws has significantly improved the transparency of the State Water Board’s enforcement system.  The State Water Board now produces Annual Enforcement reports and quarterly enforcement updates, and makes detailed enforcement data available online through its California Integrated Water Quality System (CIWQS) database.  With extensive input from CCKA, the State Water Board adopted an updated Water Quality Enforcement Policy, and also released an updated report summarizing efforts to issue mandatory minimum penalties.  CCKA has produced an online interactive map to help the public and agencies track and improve compliance with water quality laws.  This tool maps all dischargers in California that have been issued "mandatory minimum penalties" (MMPs) by the State Water Board in the ten years since the laws setting these minimum penalties took effect. 

A significant gap in the both the Policy and the regular enforcement reports is the lack of enforcement of polluted runoff.  Enforcement focuses on discharges from pipes to surface waters regulated under the federal Clean Water Act.  But many of the state’s waterways are seriously polluted from contaminated land run-off, such as from agriculture and timber operations.  State law, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, requires the State and Regional Water Boards to implement and enforce programs to control all pollution (including polluted runoff) into all waters (both surface water and groundwater).  CCKA advocates on behalf of healthy waterways by encouraging the full enforcement of both state and federal water laws, and for complete reporting on the success of those efforts.

Part of improving enforcement of water quality laws is making the laws easier to enforce, so that staff and dischargers can more quickly assess whether there are violations.  CCKA and member Waterkeepers work to make permits easier to enforce; for example, we are advocating for numeric pollution limits in stormwater permits at the state and federal levels, as opposed to the subjective qualitative conditions that are used in those permits now.

Take Action

The links on this site lead you to reports on local pollution; let your local Regional Water Board and state legislators know that you want pollution laws enforced!  And if you see pollution incidents, call the local Regional Water Board or the Department of Fish and Game’s Cal-TIP line at  1 (888) DFG-CALTIP.  Find and call your local legislators.