Guided Tour of South OC BMPs Addressing Bacteria Loads
Significant progress in BMP implementation to address the Bacteria TMDLs has resulted in improvements to coastal water quality.
Bacteria Total Maximum Daily Loads
The Twenty Beaches and Creeks Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) includes creeks, creek mouths, and beaches within the South Orange County Watershed Management Area (SOC WMA). The Baby Beach TMDL includes Baby Beach, a small man-made beach, approximately 600 feet wide, located in Dana Point Harbor in Dana Point, California. The goal of the Bacteria TMDLs is to limit bacteria load into impaired waterbodies and to restore the REC-1 beneficial use. For more information on the background of these TMDLs, see the 2019-2020 SOC WMA TMDL Annual Reports here .
Effective Best Management Practices
Since the 2002 baseline TMDL year, the Permittees have implemented various effective Best Management Practices (BMPs) including jurisdictional source control programs, distributed structural BMPs, and regional structural BMPs throughout the SOC WMA. These non-structural and structural measures have resulted in improved receiving water quality and reduction in dry weather urban runoff, reducing bacteria loads to listed segments.
This story map travels through each of the subwatersheds within South Orange County Watershed Management Area to explore implemented BMPs that have improved water quality at our beaches and creeks.
Scroll through the story to learn about these BMPs and more. As you scroll, information, maps and photos will appear. The map will automatically focus on a particular BMP area, but feel free to navigate the map as you'd like. Photos can be clicked on to be enlarged. This site is a living document and BMPs will continue to be added. For any questions regarding this story map, feel free to contact the South OC Stormwater Program at https://www.southocwqip.org/pages/contact .