Successful water quality planning: An areawide perspective

Excerpt

THE Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) Amendments of 1972 inarguably have led to significant improvements in this country's water quality. But nonpoint sources remain the most pervasive problems to be dealt with in controlling water pollution. Even as Congress grapples with means to strengthen nonpoint-source control laws, it is valuable to examine what has been achieved by the regulations and monies already made available. Areawide planning (Section 208) in the southern California region demonstrates the difficulties encountered in water quality planning projects and some of the means for achieving success.

The 208 program

In 1976 the California State Water Resources Control Board designated the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) as the areawide waste treatment management planning agency for the South Coast planning area. The planning area is a combination of political and watershed boundaries, encompassing portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties and all of Orange County. The area covers about 5,890 square miles of rapidly developing land, although the most intensive urban land use remains concentrated in the coastal plain.

The 208 plan investigated water quality problems and identified waste management needsthroughout the 208 planning region. It resulted in 10 plan-element …