Welcome to the Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality
OC Land Development Water Quality Program Survey
The Orange County Stormwater Program is seeking input from the land development community about existing technical guidance and tools for preparing Water Quality Management Plans (WQMPs) and constructing best management practices (BMPs). You’re invited to respond to an online survey to provide feedback on the Model WQMP, Technical Guidance Document (TGD), etc., for Orange County. Learn more »
COVID-19
CASQA Presentations
In September CICWQ was invited by the California Stormwater Quality Association to participate in their annual conference in Sacramento, September 25-27, 2017.
Read more and view the powerpoint files here »
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Supporting Members
California’s budget cuts threaten environmental spending
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget cuts include canceling billions of dollars in climate change spending, a blow to environmental advocates who look to the state as a stopgap for the Trump administration’s weakening of federal protections.
In January, Newsom proposed a $12 billion “climate budget” that, over the next five years, would offer incentives for companies to convert to electric vehicles, give low-interest loans to businesses to clean up their practices and spend billions on projects preparing for floods, droughts and wildfires.
But Thursday, Newsom proposed eliminating most of the foundation for those programs to balance a budget that will have an estimated $54.3 billion deficit. The economic downturn has been brought by a statewide stay-at-home order to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The order has closed most businesses for two months, putting more than 4.5 million people out of work and sending state tax collections plummeting.
The proposed cuts come as the state is battling the Trump administration over water quality and auto emissions, among other environmental issues.
“At a time when the Trump administration is mounting an unprecedented assault on environmental and public health protection, it’s absolutely devastating and horrifying,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity.
A behind-the-scenes battle to divert L.A.'s storm water from going to waste
Joe Mozingo, Contact Reporter, LA Times
The storm had gathered power for days as it crossed the Northern Pacific, and now its outer band was uppercutting the coast.
By the time Eric Batman arrived at work at 7 Monday morning, a hard west wind was driving rain and hail sideways against windows. Thunder reverberated across the L.A. Basin.
Batman reveled in El Niño's long-overdue rumbling.
His job, as senior civil engineer for the county Department of Public Works, is to keep as much rain as possible from escaping to the ocean.
He wished this storm would slow down a bit. Let the mountains wring more of that water out. Make it more of a challenge.
Even at its current clip, the clouds would drop hundreds of millions of gallons on Southern California, and he needed to make sure the system was ready.
On the second floor of the department's headquarters in Alhambra, he checked in with the "storm boss," the on-duty engineer in charge of monitoring flow rates throughout the 3,300-mile network of storm drains, channels, debris basins, dams, spreading grounds - everything humans have built over the last century to control the water racing from the high San Gabriels to the sea.
"Where are we open?" Batman asked. "How much are we taking in?"
The storm boss told Batman that he had inflated one of the seven rubber dams along the lower San Gabriel River.
This move would divert the flow into a spreading ground in Pico Rivera - 90 acres of porous soil that can suck up 75 cubic feet of water every second to be stored in the aquifer below.
But the water wasn't there yet. The San Gabriel takes its time.
With age, the county's two big rivers - sisters born of the same weather systems and topography - have grown distinct in appearance and temperament.
The L.A. River is a fast and moody Type A, and it's had a lot of work done.
EPA full steam with 'Waters' protection rule, but trouble ahead
The Obama administration on Wednesday launched a sweeping measure to protect the nation’s waterways and wetlands — an initiative that faces a fierce counterattack from powerhouse industries like agriculture, oil and home-building.
On its face, the final “Waters of the United States” rule is largely a technical document, defining which rivers, streams, lakes and marshes fall under the jurisdiction of the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. But the industries and their allies in Congress condemn it as a massive power grab by Washington, saying it will give bureaucrats carte blanche to swoop in and penalize landowners every time a cow walks through a ditch. And it comes amid years of complaints from Republicans about President Barack Obama’s regulatory agenda, which has encompassed everything from power plants and health insurers to Internet providers and for-profit colleges.
Things You Should Know...
Please visit our issues page to see a list of the regulatory permitting and policy actions that are affecting the construction industry.
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