Cathedral City, CA Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Chapter 15.10 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code, Storm Water Management and Discharge Controls, protects water quality consistent with the federal Clean Water Act by regulating nonstorm water discharges to the city's storm drain system, controlling spills and dumping, and reducing pollutants in storm water discharges to the maximum extent practicable (§ 15.10.010).

The core rule is § 15.10.040. Nonstorm water discharges are prohibited, and any discharge other than storm water must comply with a permit issued for that discharge. Printed exceptions cover discharges under a state-administered permit or waiver, plus properly managed water line flushing, landscape irrigation and lawn watering, foundation and footing drains, air conditioning condensate, individual residential car washings and dechlorinated swimming pool discharges. The same section bans illicit connections and illicit discharges, retroactively, even for connections made when the law allowed them (subsection C). It requires anyone whose activities send pollutants toward the system to undertake all practicable measures to reduce them (subsection D), and it bars leaving pollutants on any street, alley, sidewalk or drainage structure where they can wash into the system, including from leaking dumpsters (subsection E). Leak-prone objects and unsealed containers cannot be stored where runoff reaches them, and the city can require a spill containment system (§ 15.10.050). New development can be required to control runoff volume and rate (§ 15.10.070).

The city planner administers the chapter (§ 15.10.030). An authorized enforcement officer is the city planner or the director of the county health department and anyone either designates (§ 15.10.020). Officers can inspect, take samples, require monitoring at the operator's expense, issue cease and desist orders and give a notice to clean (§§ 15.10.100 and 15.10.160). A person in charge of a facility must notify the city, the county health department and the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board by telephone, confirmed in writing, of any suspected release (§ 15.10.100(C)).