SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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RESPONSE TO WRITTEN COMMENTS -28- City Of Stockton- Regional Wastewater Control Facility NPDES No. CA0079138 26 April 2002 Board Meeting sufficiently detailed and individualized to duly protect the water's designated uses. Given that there is no textual support for imposing this requirement,we are loath to attribute to Congress an intent to impose this heavy regulatory burden on the States." - (Id. At pp. 717-718.) Thus, the language of the CWA, the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of this language, and the public policy underpinnings for water quality standards compel the conclusion that the Regional Board is permitted and is required to regulate Stockton's discharge to protect the beneficial uses. Stockton asserts that the Regional Board should only apply the Basin Plan's fecal coliform water quality objective. The fecal coliform objective by itself, however, is not sufficiently protective for discharges of human wastewater since it is a receiving water standard for surface water and only addresses coliform not other pathogens. It alone is not sufficient to protect all beneficial uses. Domestic sewage contains bacteria, viruses, and parasites that are a threat to public health if sewage is not adequately treated. (See Irrigation with Reclaimed Municipal Wastewater, California State Water Resources Control Board, Report No. 84-1 WR, Chapter 10, Exhibit CVR 041.)Diseases that can be caused by the microorganisms in wastewater include typhoid fever, amebic dysentery, salmonellosis, gastroenteritis, cholera, polio, pleurodynia,myocarditis, meningitis and encephalitis. (Stoddard v. Western Carolina Regional Sewer Authority (4th Cir., 1986) 784 F.2d 1200, 1203, fn. 4;People of the State oflllinois v. City of Milwaukee (7th Cir., 1979) 599 F.2d 151, 167 fn. 32.) Secondary treatment standards are not adequate for the removal and/or destruction of pathogens. The Regional Board reasonably relied on the expertise of the Department of Health Services (DHS), which is the California public agency with the statutory responsibility to protect public health. DHS recommended a tertiary level of treatment with a 2.2 MPN/100 ml limit for the Stockton discharge since the San Joaquin River is used for golf course irrigation, body contact recreation, and shellfish harvesting. The recommendation was based on DHS water recycling guidelines. Although the guidelines are not adopted regulations and, therefore, do not directly apply to water taken from streams, the circumstances in the San Joaquin River are essentially identical to circumstances that are subject to the guidelines. The Regional Board also relied on studies by the State Water Resources Control Board: "Irrigation with Reclaimed Municipal Wastewater, A Guidance Manual". The Regional Board appropriately relied on recommendations based on those documents and the recommendations of DHS to assure protection of the beneficial uses. The Regional Board also appropriately relies upon DHS's review of information provided by Stockton concerning the risks posed by the discharge of its wastewater. Stockton Comment No. Att. II.i: The Tentative Order failed to demonstrate the limitations are reasonable for the protection of beneficial uses. RWQCB Response: See response to Stockton Comment No. Att. II.c. Stockton Comment No. Art. ILi: 7-day variability is not a concern