The primary focus of the City of Redlands Storm Water Program is to implement the requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program.

In 1972, the Congress of the United States established the Water Quality Act and introduced the NPDES Program to address the problem of water pollution. The NPDES regulatory program is a federally mandated program run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), overseen by the State, and administered by California’s Regional Water Quality Control Boards.

The Redlands NPDES Program has been in effect since 2004 and consists of business and construction inspections, program compliance reporting, record keeping, educational outreach, studies and reports, and storm water monitoring activities.

On January 29, 2010, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a new Storm Water Program Permit that identifies additional measures to prevent storm water pollution. The new Area-Wide Urban Storm Water Runoff Management Program is directed at controlling pollutants carried by storm water and conveyed by municipal separate storm sewer systems or as they are more commonly known MS4s. 

To help reduce costs and share the workload, the City of Redlands partnered with several surrounding cities and the County of San Bernardino to work together to meet the goals set by the EPA.