California Code of Regulations › Title 23 - Waters › Division 4 - Regional Water Quality Control Boards › Chapter 1 - Water Quality Control Plans, Policies, and Guidelines › Article 2 - San Francisco Bay Region › Section 3912 - Revised Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay Region

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
The revisions to regulatory provisions in the basin plan
					 adopted by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board on
					 September 16, 1992, October 21, 1992, August 17, 1994, and June 21, 1995 are
					 summarized as follows:
(a)
Beneficial Use Categories and Definitions
: Revises the
				  following beneficial use definitions to be consistent with statewide language:
				  "Agricultural Supply," "Cold Freshwater Habitat," "Ocean Commercial and Sport
				  Fishing," "Estuarine Habitat," "Freshwater Replenishment," "Ground Water
				  Recharge," "Industrial Service Supply," "Marine Habitat," "Fish Migration,"
				  "Municipal and Domestic Supply," "Navigation," "Industrial Process Supply,"
				  "Preservation of Rare and Endangered Species," "Water Contact Recreation,"
				  "Non-Contact Water Recreation," "Shellfish Harvesting," "Fish Spawning," "Warm
				  Freshwater Habitat," and "Wildlife Habitat."
(b)
Water Body Definitions
:
				  Adds definitions for "ground water" and "ground water basin."
(c)
Ground Waters
:
				  Identifies ground water basins within the region; designates ground waters
				  within each basin as suitable or potentially suitable for municipal and
				  domestic supply, industrial service supply, industrial process supply,
				  agricultural supply, and/or freshwater replenishment.
(d)
Wetlands
: Clarifies that
				  in cases where the Regional Board is required to delineate a specific wetland
				  site and the beneficial uses associated with that site, that delineation will
				  be based on Federal guidelines.
(e)
Surface Water Objectives
:
(1) Clarifies the term "surface
				  waters";
(2) Adds descriptions of
				  major types of point source discharges;
(3) Clarifies demonstration required for
				  alternative objective;
(4)
				  Clarifies numeric objective for coliform bacteria, and clarifies the
				  relationship between testing methods and existing coliform bacteria objective
				  for water designated as MUN;
(5)
				  Revises narrative objective on bioaccumulation to include consideration of
				  effects on wildlife;
(6) Deletes
				  from biostimulatory substances narrative objective provisions on investigation
				  resulting from certain chlorophyll
a
concentrations;
(7) Revises narrative objective for
				  population and community ecology;
(8) Clarifies narrative objective for
				  sediment;
(9) Clarifies existing
				  narrative toxicity objectives by separating into acute and chronic toxicity,
				  revising explanation of "detrimental responses," updating the description of
				  tests used to identify acute toxicity;
(10) Establishes a numeric definition of
				  acute toxicity;
(11) Clarifies
				  units of measurement for the turbidity objective;
(12) Clarifies narrative objective for
				  chemical constituents;
(13)
				  Clarifies existing numeric water quality objectives for toxic pollutants:
(A) Changes the method for determining where
				  salt or freshwater objectives apply to surface waters from a geographical line
				  to average salinity values;
(B)
				  Clarifies that existing freshwater objectives for metals are
				  hardness-dependent, and includes the equations used to derive
				  them;
(14) Specifies
				  considerations in developing site specific objectives, lists highest priority
				  constituents.