Document Details

Water Quality Enforcement Policy

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | June 7th, 2017


The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) and the Regional Water Quality Control Boards (Regional Water Boards) (together “Water Boards”) have primary responsibility for the coordination and control of water quality in California. In the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (Porter-Cologne), the Legislature declared that the “state must be prepared to exercise its full power and jurisdiction to protect the quality of the waters in the state from degradation….” (Wat. Code, § 13000). Porter-Cologne grants the Water Boards the authority to implement and enforce water quality laws, regulations, policies, and plans to protect the groundwater and surface waters of the State.

Timely and consistent enforcement of these laws is critical to the success of the water quality program and to ensure that the people of the State have clean water. The goal of this Water Quality Enforcement Policy (Policy) is to protect and enhance the quality of the waters of the State by defining an enforcement process that addresses water quality problems in the most fair, efficient, effective, and consistent manner. In adopting this Policy, the State Water Board intends to provide guidance that will enable Water Board staff to expend its limited resources in ways that openly address the greatest needs, deter harmful conduct, protect the public, and achieve maximum water quality benefits. Toward that end, it is the intent of the State Water Board that the Regional Water Boards’ decisions be consistent with this Policy.

A good enforcement program relies on well-developed compliance monitoring systems designed to identify and correct violations, help establish an enforcement presence, collect evidence needed to support enforcement actions where there are identified violations, and help target and rank enforcement priorities. Compliance with regulations is critical to protecting public health and the environment, and it is the preference of the State Water Board that the most effective and timely methods be used to assure that the regulated community achieves and maintains compliance. Tools such as providing assistance, training, guidance, and incentives are commonly used by the Water Boards and work very well in many situations. There is a point, however, at which this cooperative approach should make way for a more forceful approach.

This Policy addresses the enforcement component (i.e. actions that take place in response to a violation) of the Water Boards’ regulatory framework, which is an equally critical element of a successful regulatory program. Without a strong and fair enforcement program to back up the cooperative approach, the entire regulatory framework would be in jeopardy.

Enforcement is a critical ingredient in creating the deterrence needed to encourage the regulated community to anticipate, identify, and correct violations. Formal enforcement should always result when a non- compliant member of the regulated public begins to realize a competitive economic advantage over compliant members of the regulated public. The principle of fairness in enforcement requires that those who are unwilling to incur the expenses of regulatory compliance not be rewarded for making that choice.

It is the intent of the State Water Board that formal enforcement should be used as a tool to maintain a level-playing field for those who comply with their regulatory obligations by setting appropriate civil liabilities for those who do not. Appropriate penalties and other consequences for violations offer some assurance of equity between those who choose to comply with requirements and those who violate them. It also improves public confidence when government is ready, willing, and able to back up its requirements with action.

Keywords

water quality