Yorba Linda, CA Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Chapter 16.04, the City's water quality control ordinance, bars illicit connections and prohibited discharges to the stormwater drainage system under Section 16.04.030. The prohibition reaches anyone who constructs, maintains, operates or utilizes an illicit connection, who causes, allows or facilitates a prohibited discharge, who permits an agent, employee or contractor to do either, who builds a new development or significant redevelopment project without complying with the City's water quality manual, or who fails to meet the minimum best management practices set out in Section 16.04.050.

A civil or administrative violation occurs regardless of the violator's intent, so an accidental discharge is treated the same as a deliberate one. Legal nonconforming connections that predate the ordinance get a grace period, five years for structural improvements and six months after notice for nonstructural ones, before they become illicit. New development and significant redevelopment, defined as adding five thousand or more square feet of impervious surface, must obtain City Engineer approval of a water quality management plan before any grading, building or safety permit issues; a single-family detached home is exempt under Section 16.04.040 unless the City Engineer finds the project could discharge a significant pollutant load.

Section 16.04.060 gives the authorized inspector a graduated enforcement toolkit: a notice of noncompliance with up to a ninety-day compliance deadline, extendable another ninety days for good cause, followed by an administrative compliance order setting specific abatement steps and timelines. Owners of a legal nonconforming connection may request an administrative hearing before the City Engineer to seek an extension.