Enforce Clean Water Laws

Watershed Enforcers Initiative


For almost two decades, CSPA has been at the forefront of efforts to enforce regulations put in place to control pollutant discharges from wastewater, stormwater, and agricultural runoff.


CSPA has made significant progress with over 60 clean water enforcement actions taken. Most of these actions are resolved by the offending parties agreeing to clean up their act.


CSPA’s Watershed Enforcers Initiative makes California’s rivers and streams safer for people and for fish and other aquatic organisms.


Key Facts About Water Pollution


Point source and nonpoint source water pollution in California is a widespread problem affecting human health as well as the health of watersheds, fish, wildlife, and plant life. Point source pollution is pollution from a single identifiable source, such as a farm, factory, or wastewater treatment plant.


Nonpoint pollution has no one identifiable source, rather it is the cumulative pollution caused by water moving over and through the ground collecting natural and human made pollutants and depositing them into other waterways, including aquifers. In 2002 the United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued the results of a study that identified the Sacramento River as having a higher level of pharmaceuticals than any other waterway tested in the country.


Sewage spills into the ocean regularly pose a health risk to humans and marine life. Untreated stormwater carries chemicals, nutrients, and bacteria into waterways. Runoff from irrigated lands carries naturally occurring minerals like selenium and deposits high concentrations of such minerals into waterways, causing significant long-term damage to populations of fish and wildlife.


Due to pollution, nearly a million Californians lack access to safe drinking water. Many small rural water systems are unable to provide safe drinking water to residents with wells being contaminated by nitrates and chemicals such as pesticides.


Discharges from farms and wastewater treatment plants contain high levels of nitrates and phosphates. High levels of nutrients in surface water creates the perfect conditions for harmful algal blooms (HABs). Algal blooms are not always toxic but because algal blooms consume so much oxygen from the water, even non-toxic blooms can kill an enormous number of fish and other aquatic animals.


HABs have been a frequent occurrence in the Bay-Delta resulting in the death of many white sturgeon and other species that are already struggling for survival.


Existing Regulations that Address Water Pollution


The Clean Water Act prohibits anyone from discharging pollutants into waterways unless they have a permit from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
NPDES is the federal body that regulates discharges of pollutants into surface waters from point sources.


If NPDES issues a permit to a point source, the permit will contain terms specifying the substances that can be discharged, the monitoring and reporting requirements, and other restrictions.


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board), and the nine Regional Water Boards (Regional Board) administer the NPDES program. In California NPDES permits are also referred to as Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs).

The holder of a NPDES permit is required to sample the facility’s discharges and submit the results to the EPA and State Board. The permittee is required to notify the EPA and the relevant Regional Board if discharges from the facility are not in compliance with its permit.

The Regional Boards are the primary enforcer of NPDES permits. It is the relevant Regional Board that is responsible for conduction inspections, monitoring report reviews, and taking enforcement actions when necessary.


CSPA Enforces Clean Water Laws


CSPA coordinates with biologists to test waters for pollutants that come from both point and nonpoint sources. If levels of pollutants exceed recommended levels CSPA takes action.

If pollutants come into the waterway from a nonpoint source, CSPA contacts the relevant government agencies and requests that they take action on the matter.


If pollutants come into the waterway from a point source CSPA contacts the relevant Regional Board and requests that they take action to rectify the NPDES permittee’s noncompliance.

When necessary CSPA challenges both government agencies and point source polluters in the courts to ensure clean water laws are enforced.

Watershed Enforcers Campaigns

Recent News

Watershed Enforcers Initiative

Press Release: CALIFORNIA SPORTFISHING PROTECTION ALLIANCE SECURES AT&T’s REMOVAL OF TOXIC LEAD-CONTAINING PHONE CABLES FROM LAKE TAHOE

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California. September 18, 2024 – California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) is pleased to announce Pacific Bell Telephone Company, dba AT&T of California, has agreed to remove its abandoned telecommunications cables that have been leaching toxic lead into the waters of Lake Tahoe for decades. This settlement comes as a direct result […]

California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Sierra Club Tahoe Area Group Announce Lake Tahoe Lawsuit Victory

PRESS RELEASE: The Sierra Club Tahoe Area Group and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) are thrilled to announce victory in their lawsuit against herbicide discharges into the Tahoe Keys lagoons connected to Lake Tahoe. In January 2022, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a permit allowing the first ever discharge of herbicides […]

PRESS RELEASE: Groups and Tribe Urge Regulators to Control Toxic Pollution from Selenium

PRESS RELEASE April 3, 2024 In an April 1, 2024 letter to three water boards, fishing and conservation groups and a Tribe have urged regulators to control recently measured excess levels of selenium in Mud Slough. Mud Slough drains selenium-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley into the San Joaquin River and ultimately […]

Nitrate Pollution: One Place Environmental Justice and Environmental Advocacy Meet

In 2021, the Central Coast Regional Water Board (Regional Board) adopted Agricultural Order 4.0. This order contained measures to reduce nitrate pollution in groundwater caused by the agricultural sector. Specifically, Order 4.0 set numeric limits to regulate the amount of chemical nitrate fertilizers growers could use in their fields. In September 2023, the State Water […]

SF Estuary/Delta Needs Long Overdue Protections from Ballast Water Discharges

By Cindy Charles CSPA, along with over a dozen other environmental organizations, recently signed on to a comment letter supporting limits on the discharge of ships’ ballast water into the Bay-Delta Estuary.  The letter was sent to the San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) for consideration in the 2022-2027 San Francisco Estuary Blueprint. The comment letter […]