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STAFF REPORT -3- STOCKTON REGIONAL WASTEWATER CONTROL FACILITY SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY Plan DO water quality objective of 5 mg/l (if the City cannot immediately comply with them after they have been reconsidered as stated above). e. Possible consideration of future projects, including changes in the Delta operations and expansion of the City's reclamation project, as alternatives to compliance with more stringent CBOD and ammonia effluent limitations, if these alternatives can be demonstrated to achieve the goal of compliance with the applicable DO water quality objectives within the time period permitted in the time extension or compliance schedule. The stay of the effluent limitations for ammonia and receiving water limitations for DO that was established in SWRCB Order No.WQ 95-1 was continued. In all other respects, the NPDES permit remained in full force and effect. ADDITIONAL REGULATORY ACTIVITIES Ongoing studies and regulations surrounding the San Joaquin River and Delta have emerged since the issuance of the remand by the SWRCB. Stockton completed its Risk Assessment in May 1996; however, the Department of Health Services (DHS) did not complete its review and comment of the study until November 1999. The Discharger performed evaluations for mercury, mineralization, and ability to comply with the Thermal Plan throughout 1996. The Discharger refined a river model in 1997 which it had initially developed in 1993. To evaluate the impact of new flow standards on Stockton area DO, the Regional Board, SWRCB,Department of Water Resources, and the City coordinated monitoring of river flows and DO impacts, which took about two years. In January 1998 the Regional Board adopted a revised 303(d) list which identified DO deficiencies within the San Joaquin River and the Delta as a high priority problem and that total maximum daily limits (TMDLs) should be developed. The 1999 Bay Protection and Toxic Cleanup Program(BPTCP) also identified the San Joaquin River near Stockton as a toxic hot spot due to low DO. The BPTCP provided a strategy to collect the information necessary to implement the TMDL. Finally,the Environmental Impact Report for Implementation of the 1995 Bay/Delta Water Quality Control Plan was released in November 1999. Water management practices or flow objectives for the Delta, as outlined in the Bay/Delta Plan, were only recently finalized in December 1999 under Water Rights Decision 1641; however, the SWRCB did not take any water right action to meet the DO objectives. As a result of the continual influx of information from the on-going studies and pending regulations, and lack of staff, the permit was not reopened to address the issues of the remand. PERMIT RENEWAL ISSUES A number of important and complex issues face Board staff with permit renewal process for the City of Stockton RWCF. These issues will require a considerable amount of research and evaluation on the part of Board staff to resolve.