Water Quality Awareness Month, observed nationally in August, takes on special significance in Orange County, where transportation and sustainability efforts are intertwined with water quality preservation.
OCTA plays a key role in protecting Orange County’s 400 miles of beach and waterways from transportation-related pollution. Roadways, bridges, and parking lots within the transportation infrastructure contribute to stormwater runoff, which can carry pollutants into local waterways.
Funded by Measure M, Orange County’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements, OCTA’s Environmental Cleanup Program awards money on a competitive basis to cities and the county to reduce the impacts of water pollution related to transportation.
The Environmental Cleanup Program is composed of two tiers of funding.
The Tier 1 Grant Program mitigates visible forms of pollutants, such as litter and debris that collect on roadways and in storm drains prior to being deposited in waterways and the ocean. It funds equipment purchases and upgrades to existing catch basins as well as screens, filters, and inserts. During 2024, more than ten million gallons of trash were removed from waterways.
Since 2011, more than $40 million has been awarded for 233 projects. Through these projects, it is estimated that the equivalent of more than 14,000 trash truck loads of garbage has been captured that could have been deposited in Orange County streams and waters.
The Tier 2 Grant Program funds regional, potentially multi-jurisdictional, capital-intensive projects. Examples include constructed wetlands, detention/infiltration basins and bioswales, which mitigate pollutants including litter and debris, but also heavy metals, organic chemicals, sediment and nutrients. Since 2011, nearly $35 million has been awarded for 26 projects. It is estimated that Tier 2-funded projects, once fully functional, will have an annual groundwater recharge potential of more than 157 million gallons of water from infiltration or through pumped and treated recharge facilities.
Through collective efforts, OCTA balances the county’s transportation needs with responsible environmental stewardship for the benefit of current and future generations.