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Pollutants of Concern

"Pollutants of Concern" (or POCs) refers to two broad categories of concern:

1) Pollutants such as mercury and PCBs that impair water quality like mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that have established plans to reduce them over time to levels that no longer impair uses of the Bay. The plans are necessary because mercury and PCB still occur at levels limiting human consumption of Bay fish because  of legacy contamination, including places in our watersheds and sediments in San Francisico Bay. Low levels of legacy pollutants like mercury and PCBs are a challenge for managing stormwater in many urban communities. The MRP  requires aggressive control measures to reduce these pollutants, supported by monitoring plans to identify potential sources and evaluate the effectiveness of corrective measures.

2) Pollutants such as nutrients and copper that have multiple sources, including urban stormwater, and warrant monitoring and investigation because of their potential to impair water quality. Monitoring helps support regional models that need to account for stormwater loads and provide updated evidence that impairments are not occurring. 

Key Documents:

Major planning reports for mercury and PCBs summarize lessons learned and set expectations for future permits: 

CCCWP's Mercury and PCBs Total Maximum Daily Load ( TMDL) Control Measure Plan and Reasonable Assurance Analysis shows the approach Permittees will follow to achieve pollutant load reduction goals. A TMDL plan sets goals for reducing pollutants from all sources and conveyances, including stormwater. Controlling these legacy pollutants in urban stormwater requires pollution prevention, source identification and reduction, and treatment by both Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) and enhanced maintenance of trash and sediment capture devices. The sections of this report show how the complete program of control measures will achieve load reduction goals over time, and summarize the costs and challenges of plan implementation. 

Annual summaries of monitoring performed for POCs are provided as appendices to each annual Urban Creek Monitoring Report. The links below provide the excerpted POC section from each annual Urban Creeks Monitoring Report, along with the project reports from monitoring work performed directly by CCCWP.  The complete contents of all annual UCMRs, including appendices, are also available at this link.