Discharge Ordinance Under Consideration in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

Prodded by state and federal governments, San Luis Obispo County, Calif., is working on drafting a law to regulate the discharge of pollutants into its water drainage system.

The Storm Water Pollution Prevention and Discharge Control Ordinance draws on the federal Clean Water Act, aiming to get a handle on "point source pollution." Industrial and sewage-treatment plants are key sources of contamination and a major focus of the proposed ordinance.

The county has tenatively scheduled a Nov. 27 public hearing centered around the proposal.

The county government, the county's seven city governments, Cal Poly, all school districts and four community service districts have completed nonpoint pollution prevention plans or have them underway. Government agencies countywide have formed an informal storm water coalition to tackle illegal discharges and other related problems.

The county's public works department has mapped its storm water drains, according to environmental programs manager Mark Hutchinson. It has also initiated a public education program featuring the Sammy the Steelhead mascot. Public education, said Hutchinson, is the best method for fighting and preventing pollution.

The federal requirement is to "effectively prohibit, through ordinance, or other regulatory mechanism, non-storm water discharges into the storm drain system and implement appropriate enforcement procedures and actions." Non-storm water discharges, according to federal officials, are "essentially any material, liquid or solid that is not composed entirely of clean rainwater." Flows from firefighting and discharges permitted by the state or county are a few exceptions.

The ordinance, if approved, would apply to all county-owned storm drains systems and all natural streams within most developed lands in the county's unincorporated areas.

Source: SanLuisObispo.com