State Water Resources Control Board stakeholders review $14.5 million cut to Waste Discharge Permit Fund; fee options discussed

State Water Resources Control Board staff told stakeholders at a virtual water quality fee meeting that the Waste Discharge Permit Fund (WDPF) fee‑setting budget for fiscal year 2025–26 would fall from about $202 million to roughly $187 million under the governor’s May revise — a $14.5 million decline, or about 7.2 percent.

The reduction is driven mainly by vacancy‑savings and position eliminations requested in 2024 budget‑reduction letters, lower pro rata charges from other state agencies, and cuts to monitoring contracts, staff said. David Ciccarelli, fee and revenue branch chief in the board’s Division of Administrative Services, said staff are preparing options for the board that would reduce specific program fees modestly to align forecast revenue with the lower budget.

Why it matters: The fund pays for permit and oversight programs across the state. Staff presented figures showing projected fee revenue under current fee structures of about $191 million against projected program expenditures of about $187.3 million, a surplus of roughly $4 million under current fees. Staff said one option to rebalance revenue and expenditures would be percentage reductions applied to base fees in affected programs (for example, a roughly 2.3% reduction in the Waste Discharge Requirements program under staff modeling).

Staff presented program‑level cost drivers and numbers cited in the meeting. Jackie Carter and…