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Garcia River TMDL
The Action Plan for the Garcia River Watershed Sediment Total Maximum Daily Load (Action
Plan) is an amendment to the Basin Plan which includes the Total Maximum Daily
Load (TMDL), implementation plan, and monitoring plan for the Garcia River. The
Action Plan was approved by the State Office of Administrative Law (OAL) on January
3, 2002, and by the U.S. EPA on March 7, 2002. The Action Plan has been in effect
since OAL approval on January 3, 2002. In addition to the Action
Plan, Regional Water Board staff also developed the Reference
Document for the Garcia River Watershed Water Quality Attainment Action Plan
for Sediment (Reference Document). The Reference Document is intended
to be a useful reference for providing additional detail about the concepts contained
in the Action Plan.
Overview of the Action Plan
The Garcia River Action Plan contains waste discharge prohibitions which apply
within the Garcia River watershed. The prohibitions are as follows:
- The controllable discharge of soil, silt, bark, slash, sawdust,
or other organic and earthen material from any logging, construction, gravel
mining, agricultural, grazing, or other activity of whatever nature into
waters of the State within the Garcia River watershed is prohibited.
- The controllable discharge of soil, silt, bark, slash, sawdust,
or other organic and earthen material from an logging, construction, gravel
mining, agricultural, grazing, or other activity of whatever nature to a
location where such material could pass into waters of the state within the
Garcia River watershed is prohibited.
In order to control existing and future sources of sediment delivery resulting
from human activity to the Garcia River and its tributaries, three options
are offered to landowners. These options are:
Option 1 (No Plan)
Comply with the new waste discharge prohibitions for the Garcia River watershed
contained in the Regional Board's Basin Plan. The Basin Plan contains waste
discharge prohibitions that apply to discharges of sediment from logging and
construction activities in amounts deleterious to beneficial uses. These current
prohibitions are enforceable throughout the entire North Coast Region, including
the Garcia River watershed. The new Garcia River watershed-specific prohibitions
prohibit "controllable" discharges of sediment from any type of land
use. Controllable discharges are defined as those discharges resulting from
human activities that can be reasonable controlled through prevention, mitigation,
or restoration. The Garcia River prohibitions are in addition to the existing
waste discharge prohibition already contained in the Basin Plan.
Option 2 (Your Plan)
Comply with an approved Erosion Control Plan and Site Specific Management
Plan. The Erosion Control Plan includes a list or inventory of controllable
sediment delivery sites on a property, an assessment of unstable areas, and
a plan for monitoring the effectiveness of the sediment reduction effort. The
Erosion Control Plan's sediment reduction schedule must be developed such that
10% of the estimated volume of deliverable sediment is corrected each year
for a period of ten years on non-agricultural properties. On agricultural lands,
the sediment reduction schedule is set such that 20% of the estimated volume
of sediment must be corrected every four years, which results in a twenty year
period to correct all sites.
The Site Specific Management Plan includes a list of erosion prevention measures
that will be used in the future to avoid creating more sediment delivery sites.
It also includes a list of measures designed to improve conditions in the riparian
zone.
Option 3 (Regional Board's Plan)
Comply with an approved Erosion Control Plan and the Garcia River Management
Plan. The Erosion Control Plan under this option is the same as the Erosion
Control Plan under Option 2. The Garcia River Management Plan includes a general
series of land management measures that apply to a) road, watercourse crossing,
and near stream facilities; b) unstable areas; and c) the riparian zone.
