On May 2, 2006, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) adopted Statewide General Waste Discharge Requirements (GWDR) for Sanitary Sewer Systems, herein referred to as the “General Order.” The General Order ensures that wastewater collection systems are properly operated and maintained by the municipalities that are in charge of their operations.

The General Order applies to all public collection system agencies in California that own or operate collection systems comprised of more than one mile of pipe or sewer lines and convey untreated wastewater to a publicly owned treatment facility. The principal elements of the General Order include requiring each agency to prepare a Sewer System Management Plan (SSMP) and report all Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) to the SWRCB’s online SSO database. The goal of the General Order is to minimize sanitary sewer overflows (SSO’s).

The General Order also requires that the SSMP must be updated every five years to include any significant program changes and the updated SSMP must be reapproved by the governing board upon completion of the update. The SSMP was initially approved by the Folsom City Council on July 28, 2009, through Resolution No. 8526. The updated 2019 SSMP was approved by council through Resolution 10312 on July 23, 2019.