San Diego’s Water Board is offering opportunities for the community to become involved in the future of water quality. There are informative workshops and meetings that the public can attend to provide an opportunity for discussion, receive information, and input from the board on various proposed issues. A list of topics include: The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Permit and Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges from Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems and Draining the Watersheds within the San Diego Region. The workshops will be conducted by a professional facilitator. Two or more San Diego Water Board members may be present at the workshop, but no actions or voting will occur. While the professional facilitator may help the group to reach consensus on key issues, it is important to understand that consensus may not be attained at the workshops. The comments and information received during the workshops on these issues will be considered by the San Diego Water Board.
The objective of the workshops is for the San Diego Water Board to gain a greater understanding of the perspectives that storm water program managers, non-government environmental organizations, and the development/business communities, and the community at large have on the prior lawful approval and receiving water limitations issues. Another objective is also to gain a greater perspective from growers, irrigated land monitoring groups, water purveyors, and governmental agencies regarding key elements of the Tentative General Order. The Tentative General Order will be available for public review prior to the Public Workshops. The main concern throughout the San Diego Region is the significant water quality threats posed by agricultural operations which include fertilizer and pesticide use, which can result in runoff of chemicals from agricultural lands into surface waters and into groundwater, causing or contributing to conditions of pollution.
