Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act

The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act is pioneering clean water act of California that expanded the enforcement authority of the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 Regional Water Quality Control Boards. The act provided for the California Environmental Protection Agency to create the local boards and better protect water rights and water quality.

The Porter-Cologne Act also known as the California Water Code, Section 7 was created in 1969 and is the law that governs the water quality regulation in California. It was established to be a program to protect the water quality as well as the beneficial uses of water. This act applies to surface water, groundwater, wetlands and both point and nonpoint sources of pollution. There are nine regional water boards and one state water board that has resulted from this act. The act requires the adoption of water quality control plans that contain the guiding policies of water pollution management in California.

The act uses the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for point source discharges and waste discharge requirements (WDRs) in order to keep people from degrading the water quality of the State. The policy states:

The State Water Resources Control Board provides guidance and oversight over the nine regional water boards which are based on hydrological barriers. They are also responsible for allocating funds and reviewing the regions decisions in order to make sure that the water quality in the State isn't becoming degraded.

The regional water boards are charged with implementing its provisions and have primary responsibility for protecting water quality in California. The regional water boards include:

The Porter-Cologne Act requires the adoption of water quality control plans that give direction to managing water pollution in California. Usually basin plans get adopted by the Regional Water Boards and are updated when needed. The plans incorporate the beneficial uses of water of the State and then provide objectives that will be taken in order to maintain and protect these uses. They can meet these objectives by surveillance and monitoring and the Regional Water Boards have the authority of enforcing this objectives upon violators. Along with the Regional Water Boards, the State Water Resources Board can issue and enforce permits containing waste discharge requirements in order to maintain clean surface water and groundwater from pollution.

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