Item 07 - Sewer System Management Plan 2025 Update

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STATEWIDE SANITARY SEWER SYSTEMS GENERAL ORDER 3.1.3 Water Boards Authority to Require Technical Reports, Monitoring, and Reporting Water Code sections 13267 and 13383 authorize the Regional Water Boards and the State Water Board to establish monitoring, inspection, entry, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements. Water Code section 13267(b), authorizes the Regional Water Boards to "require any person who has discharged, discharges, or is suspected of having discharged or discharging, or who proposes to discharge waste within its region... or is suspected of having discharged or discharging, or who proposes to discharge, waste outside of its region that could affect the quality of water within its region shall furnish, under penalty of perjury, technical or monitoring reports which the regional board requires... In requiring those reports, the regional board shall provide the person with a written explanation with regard to the need for the reports and shall identify the evidence that supports requiring that person to provide the reports." Water Code section 13267(f) authorizes the State Water Board to require this information if it consults with the Regional Water Boards and determines that it will not duplicate the efforts of the Regional Water Boards. The State Water Board has consulted with the Regional Water Boards and made this determination. The technical and monitoring reports required by this General Order and Attachment E (Notification, Monitoring, Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements) are necessary to evaluate and ensure compliance with this General Order. The effort to develop required technical reports will vary depending on the system size and complexity and the needs of the specific technical report. The burden and cost of these reports are reasonable and consistent with the interest of the state in protecting water quality, which is the primary purpose of requiring the reports. Water Code section 13383(a) authorizes the Water Boards to "establish monitoring, inspection, entry, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements... for any person who discharges, or proposes to discharge, to navigable waters, any person who introduces pollutants into a publicly owned treatment works, any person who owns or operates, or proposes to own or operate, a publicly owned treatment works or other treatment works treating domestic sewage, or any person who uses or disposes, or proposes to use or dispose, of sewage sludge." Section 13383(b) continues, "the state board or the regional boards may require any person subject to this section to establish and maintain monitoring equipment or methods, including, where appropriate, biological monitoring methods, sample effluent as prescribed, and provide other information as may be reasonably required." Reporting of spills from privately owned sewer laterals and systems pursuant to section 5.15 (Voluntary Reporting of Spills from Privately -Owned Sewer Laterals and/or Private Sanitary Sewer Systems) of this General Order is authorized by Water Code section 13225(c) and encouraged by the State Water Board, wherein a local agency may investigate and report on any technical factors involved in water quality control provided the burden including costs of such reports bears a reasonable relationship to the need for the report and the benefits to be obtained therefrom. The burden of reporting private spills under section 5.15 (Voluntary Reporting of Spills from Privately -Owned Sewer Laterals and/or Private Sanitary Sewer Systems) is minimal and is outweighed by the benefit of providing Regional Water Boards an opportunity to respond to these spills ORDER 2022-0103-DWQ December 6, 2022 n.