Water Quality Planning Strategy

The California State Water Resources Control Board created the Office of Technical Coordination (OTC) to coordinate and oversee the administrative and technical effort required for the formulation of a planning program to preserve and enhance the quality of the State's water resources. The project included the development of water quality planning for each of the 16 hydrologic basins. Begun in 1970, the program complies with Federal requirements initially established in 1970 and new requirements imposed in 1972 by PL 92-500 and with the State's Porter-Cologne Act. Both laws require the preparation of water quality control plans for the State's 16 basins. With the enactment of these laws, significant changes were required in current water resources management methods and practices. The fundamental changes with the greatest impact were in the areas of multiagency coordination, use of multidisciplinary planning procedures, and implementation of a comprehensive step-wise planning strategy.