Basin Planning

Basin Plan / Triennial Review / Amendments / Basin Planning Projects / Monitoring Programs / TMDLs / Bay-Delta

The Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay Basin (Basin Plan) is the Board's master water quality control planning document. It designates beneficial uses and water quality objectives for waters of the State, including surface waters and groundwater. It also includes programs of implementation to achieve water quality objectives. The Basin Plan has been adopted by the Board and approved by the State Water Resources Control Board, Office of Administrative Law, and U.S. EPA where required.

Please address any questions regarding these pages or the Basin Plan Triennial Review to Richard Looker, Basin Planner, 510-622-2451, Richard.Looker@waterboards.ca.gov.

Water Quality Control Plan (Basin Plan) for the San Francisco Bay Basin

The Basin Plan has been updated to reflect the Basin Plan amendments adopted by the Board and approved by the State Board, Office of Administrative Law, and U.S. EPA (where required) up through July 22, 2024. We are providing downloadable, printable chapters in both PDF and in html (which may be read online or printed from the web; html pages also contain many links to related laws, Board orders, etc.). Chapter 7 of the Basin Plan contains all of the adopted Water Quality Attainment Strategies including TMDLs. This chapter is organized geographically by basin. You can see maps of all the basins in the region in Chapter 2

HTML version of the Basin Plan:

• Table of Contents for Chapters 1-3
• Table of Contents for Chapter 4
• Table of Contents for Chapters 5-7
• Table of Contents for All Figures and Tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Beneficial Uses
  • Documentation of Beneficial Uses for select Water Bodies (pdf)
• Chapter 3: Water Quality Objectives
• Chapter 4: Implementation Plans
• Chapter 5: Plans and Policies
• Chapter 6: Surveillance and Monitoring
• Chapter 7: Water Quality Attainment Strategies Including Total Maximum Daily Loads
• NEW! Chapters 1 through 7 combined in printer-friendly format

PDF files available for viewing and download

More Information on Beneficial Uses (from 2010 Basin Plan amendment)

Supporting documentation for each beneficial use added to Table 2-1 in 2012 (Basin Plan amendment R2-2010-0100). This document contains information on nearly 400 water bodies within the region. Search on a water body name, or download the document to see bookmarks.

Basin Plan Amendments

Periodically, the Water Board considers amendments to the Basin Plan. Each amendment is subject to an extensive public review process. At a public hearing, the Water Board may act to adopt the amendment. Adopted amendments are subject to approval by State Board. In most cases, the Office of Administrative Law and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) must approve the amendment as well.

Table of recent Basin Plan Amendments (that have all their approvals and have been incorporated into the Basin Plan) with links to supporting documentation.

Basin Planning Projects

The 2021 Triennial Review identified Climate Change and Aquatic Habitat Protection, Management, and Restoration as a high priority project. This project will add information to the Basin Plan on climate change and how it might affect the region’s waters; describe efforts made to support the long-term resilience of aquatic habitats in the region; and include a suite of questions and information that may be relevant when the Water Board permits dredge or fill activities in or near the region’s shorelines, especially climate adaptation projects. 

Water Board staff has been working with stakeholders and scientists including the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) to support regulatory management decisions through an improved understanding of the role nutrients play in water quality in the San Francisco Bay Estuary. must characterize current and future risks of eutrophication-driven degradation associated with human contributions of nutrients and how to manage this risk. The 2021 Triennial Review affirmed this as a high priority project. Please see the NNE project page for more information.

Establishing Tribal Beneficial Uses (TBUs) is high priority project identified through the 2021 Triennial Review. This project involves adding new Tribal Beneficial Use definitions to the Basin Plan, gathering information relevant to designating these uses, and amending or establishing water quality objectives and implementation programs to achieve these uses. Please visit the Tribal Beneficial Use project page to learn more.

The Regional Board has adopted, and the State Water Board has approved a Basin Plan amendment to 1) correct errors in freshwater objective calculation formulas for selected metals to be consistent with the California Toxics Rule (CTR) or National Toxics Rule (NTR), from where these objectives originate; 2) clarify that additional applicable policies, regulations, and guidance aside from the State Implementation Policy (SIP) may be relied on when developing dilution credits for non-priority pollutants; 3) allow establishment of alternative cyanide dilution credits and mercury concentration triggers to reflect changes in wastewater treatment operations that implement water recycling projects, water conservation, or use new materials in industrial production processes; and 4) general cleanup to add clarifications, update obsolete information, and improve document formatting. Please visit the NPDES Corrections project page to learn more.

Triennial Review

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