Federal water quality regulations were first instituted at the end of the 19th century, with the passage of the Refuse Act of 1899. This Act was intended to prevent persons or industries from placing objects in the water that could impede river or harbor traffic. It was not really intended to control water quality. It wasn’t until 1948 that Congress adopted the Water Pollution Control Act, which was the first federal legislation to address water pollution and water quality in the nation. The 1948 Act however, did very little to correct the increasingly worsening water quality problems, leaving the right to control water quality to the states and by not adopting federal wastewater discharge standards.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s, while federal funding for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities and general involvement by the federal government continued to increase, Congress was careful to not infringe on the states’ rights to control their own water pollution problems. This “hands off” policy, however, ended with the Clean Water Act of 1972.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) established national water quality goals, with the objective to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” The CWA set two ambitious goals – the elimination of the discharge of all pollutants to our nation’s water by 1985 and an interim goal of swimable and fishable waters by 1983. The CWA also directed the EPA to establish criteria for water quality and discharge limits and a procedure for the permitting of all dischargers into navigable waters. The result of this last directive was the establishment of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) which mandates enforceable water discharge standards.

Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system do not need an NPDES permit – municipal, industrial and other facilities discharging to surface waters do, however, need to secure an NPDES permit.

SOCWA operates four wastewater treatment facilities itself and several other treatment facilities are operated by SOCWA’s Member Agencies. All of these wastewater treatment facilities discharge their treated secondary effluent to the Pacific Ocean, either through the Aliso Creek Ocean Outfall or the San Juan Creek Ocean Outfall. SOCWA has been issued NPDES permits from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (SDRWQCB) for both of its ocean outfalls, each setting forth the waste discharge requirements.