Coastkeeper continues to work with co-plaintiffs Waterkeepers Northern California, the California Public Interest Research Group (Calpirg) and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's failure to adopt Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for pollutants in California's impaired water bodies. TMDLs are essentially implementation plans aimed at restoring waters that do not meet basic federal "fishable-swimmable" standards. Until this case was initiated in 1999, many regions in California - including San Diego - had failed to adopt even a single TMDL despite hundreds of water bodies not meeting federal standards.
The case was dismissed on summary judgment at District Court, with the judge citing increased resources and initiation of TMDLs (resulting from our litigation) as a rationale. While this case marked the first Coastkeeper case in which we did not prevail, the plaintiffs have had a significant impact on the statewide policy of adopting TMDLs. In direct response to this litigation, several TMDLs are now underway in San Diego and throughout California, and federal and state agencies have made the TMDL program a high priority with a dramatic increase in funding support this program.
Coastkeeper has continued to monitor and provide input into the TMDL listing process through participation in the AB 982 Public Advisory Group (PAG) and through hearings at the Regional and State Water Boards. As a result of public pressure, the number of 303(d) impaired water bodies list in San Diego nearly doubled to 60 water segments in the 2002 listing (finalized in 2003).
The State Water Resource Control Board (SWRCB) also issued its draft guidance document on TMDL development and implementation in 2003. Despite input from more than a dozen environmental groups through the PAG process (including Coastkeeper), the State's guidance document is extremely weak in terms of environmental protection, and Coastkeeper is working with other groups to challenge this guidance document at the regulatory arena, and perhaps eventually in court.