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California Coastal Commission

ca-coastal-commission

Critical Coastal Areas Program
Identifying Critical Coastal Areas

The multi-agency Statewide CCA Committee selected initial criteria for identifying CCAs in 1995, and added new criteria in 2002 and 2014, resulting in the current (2014) list of 119 CCAs. The CCA identification criteria reflect the dual goals of improving degraded water quality, and providing extra protection from polluted runoff to marine and estuarine areas with recognized high resource value.

The CCA identification criteria rely on existing state designations, including:

The Clean Water Act 303(d) list of impaired water bodies, as an indicator of degraded water quality.

California's Marine Managed Areas, including California Marine Protected Areas, State Water Quality Protection Areas / Areas of Special Biological Significance, and equivalent areas specified in the San Francisco Bay Plan, as indicators of marine and estuarine areas with high resource value.

Six CCA Identification Criteria

The initial CCA identification criterion used to identify the 25 original CCAs in 1995 was:

  1. Coastal watershed areas where an impaired waterway on the 1994 303(d) list is, or flows into, a bay or estuary.

    2. To better protect marine and estuarine areas of high resource value, three additional CCA identification criteria were added in 2002:

  2. Coastal watershed areas where an impaired waterway on the 1998 303(d) list flows into a state or federal Marine Managed Area (MMA). (State MMAs include Marine Protected Areas, some of which were discontinued or renamed during the state’s redesign of the MPA system in 2007-2012).

  3. Shoreline areas within San Francisco Bay where an impaired waterway on the 1998 303(d) list flows into wildlife refuges, waterfront parks, and beaches as specified in the San Francisco Bay Plan. (These designations were used as a substitute for MMAs, as there were no MMAs in San Francisco Bay).

  4. Coastal watershed areas that flow into an Area of Special Biological Significance (ASBS). (These designations were used as an indicator of marine and estuarine areas of high resource value that are not yet impacted by NPS pollution).

    5. To better protect marine and estuarine areas of high resource value that may potentially be impacted by impaired waters, two additional CCA identification criteria were added in 2014:

  5. Coastal watershed areas where an impaired waterway on the 2010 303(d) list is, or flows into, a Principal Bay or Estuary (see Calif. Dept. Fish & Wildlife's "California's Living Marine Resources: A Status Report" (2001) and map.

  6. Coastal watershed areas where an impaired waterway on the 2010 303(d) list is adjacent to a state Marine Protected Area (MPA). (“Adjacent” was defined as an MPA within one mile along the shoreline, and within one mile offshore, of an impaired waterway. MPA categories are State Marine Reserve (SMR), State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA), State Marine Park (SMP), State Marine Recreational Management Area (SMRMA), and Special Closure (SC)).

The inland boundary of a CCA is the Coastal Zone boundary (as defined in the California Coastal Act); however, planning efforts may be extended farther inland as needed. The CCA boundaries along the shoreline are delineated as the coastal-zone portion of the watershed, but can be modified on a case-by-case basis.