Where in California is copper a problem?
• A: While our studies were focused on protecting San Francisco Bay, municipalities with drainage to several Southern California streams and rivers (Chollas Creek in San Diego County, and Ballona Creek and the LA River in Los Angeles County) have had aggressive Clean Water Act deadlines imposed in the form of TMDLs (total maximum daily loads), in order to attain federal water quality standards for copper. These TMDL standards make the need to address copper in runoff particularly urgent for Southern California, though it is likely that the problem exists in urbanized watersheds throughout the state.
