§ 3904. Garcia River Tmdl for Sediment.

Regional Water Board Resolution No. 98-66, adopted by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board on May 28, 1998 and subsequently revised on December 10, 1998, modified the regulatory provisions in Section 4, Implementation Plans, Nonpoint Source Measures of the Water Quality Control Plan for the North Coast Region by establishing a phased total maximum daily load (TMDL), an implementation plan, and a monitoring plan for sediment in the Garcia River watershed in southwestern Mendocino County. This resolution was revised and readopted by the North Coast Regional Water Board as Resolution No. R1-2001-72 on June 28, 2001, which modified the Garcia River Water Quality Attainment Action Plan for Sediment which includes the TMDL, Implementation Plan, and Monitoring Plan.

(a) The TMDL establishes the goal of attaining specified targets by the year 2049 for migration barriers, embeddedness, fines, primary pool frequency, proportion of fine sediment in a pool, median particle sizes, large woody debris, width-to-depth ratio, thalweg profile, and stream channel opening.

(b) The TMDL identifies the loading capacity of the Garcia River watershed as 552 tons/sq.mi./year, a 60 percent reduction of the average annual sediment load, and allocates the load to all dischargers as “zero controllable discharges.” The loading capacity will be measured over 40 years.

(c) The implementation plan requires landowners to identify and control all existing and future controllable discharges of sediment in accordance with specified schedules using one of three options: (1) comply with waste discharge prohibitions that prohibit the controllable discharge of any organic or earthen material into the waters of the Garcia River or to any location where it could pass into the waters of the Garcia River; or (2) comply with an approved erosion control plan and an approved site-specific management plan; or (3) comply with an approved erosion control plan and the Garcia River Management Plan. The amendment specifies that it will not impose administrative civil liabilities for violations of the prohibitions if the discharging landowner is implementing an approved erosion control plan and management plan, but will consider the need to revise the plans or to issue a cleanup and abatement order.

(d) The implementation plan specifies the purpose of an erosion control plan and requires that it contain a baseline data inventory, a sediment reduction schedule, an assessment of unstable areas, and a monitoring plan which includes an annual report.

(e) The implementation plan specifies the purpose of the management plans and provides for time extensions. It specifies how a site-specific management plan must describe land management measures to control sediment delivery and describe land management measures to improve the condition of the riparian management zone. It also sets out the Garcia River Management Plan, which specifies land management measures that apply to the following: roads, watercourse crossings, and near stream facilities; unstable areas; the riparian management zone; and, gravel mining.

(f) The implementation plan specifies conditions under which other planning efforts such as a Timber Harvest Plan or a Ranch Plan will be approvable as an erosion control plan and management plan.

(g) The implementation plan provides that certain individual land management projects that are subject to Regional Water Board review are subject to the TMDL, the implementation plan, and the monitoring plan. It also requires notification of the Regional Board by a landowner conducting a restoration project, and allows substitution of restoration in lieu of action to control a sediment delivery site.

(h) The implementation Plan provides for the adoption of group erosion control plans; whereas landowners with similar land-use activities can develop collective watershed based erosion control plans without having to show internal property boundaries.

(i) The implementation plan establishes a procedure for its initiation, and an implementation schedule which specifies interim and final compliance dates ranging from 3 to 23 years for specified activities.

(j) The monitoring plan specifies instream and hillslope monitoring parameters, monitoring protocols, and frequency of monitoring, provides that instream and hillslope monitoring by landowners (except for sediment delivery site monitoring) is voluntary, and requires an annual report describing erosion control-related activities and sediment delivery reduction results.

(k) The amendment provides that the Regional Board shall review sufficiency of progress at least once every 3 years.

HISTORY

1. New section filed 1-3-2002; operative 1-3-2002 pursuant to Government Code section 11353. Resolution No. R1-2001-72 adopted by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board 6-28-2001 (Register 2002, No. 1).