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The California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) is proposing a statewide action with goals to enhance environmental benefits from grazing, protect beneficial uses of surface and groundwater, and address water quality impacts related to livestock grazing in California. This Grazing Regulatory Action Project (GRAP) aims to facilitate efficiency and statewide consistency in developing and implementing requirements to meet these goals. Our challenge is to support well-managed grazing while still protecting water quality and its beneficial uses. Well-managed livestock grazing operations provide benefits to the environment, the economy, and California consumers. In some instances, however, grazing operations contribute to impairment of water quality and impact beneficial uses. Approximately 120 water quality impairments (including fecal bacteria, temperature, sediments or nutrients) identified on the 2010 Clean Water Act (CWA) List of Impaired Waters for California are on lands with active grazing operations. .Under existing law, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) are required for all waters and pollutants on the CWA list, including waters impacted by grazing operations. Developing a TMDL for each impaired water body is not a practical solution. To date, the Water Boards have chosen to regulate livestock grazing through Water Board orders, grazing waivers, Water Quality Control Plan (Basin Plan) prohibitions, TMDLs and enforcement actions. These approaches have varied in their application and effectiveness, and have resulted in inconsistencies statewide. In addition to meeting the requirements of the CWA, the Water Boards must meet the requirements of the California Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, which obligates the Water Boards to address all discharges of waste that could affect the quality of the waters of the State, including all nonpoint sources of pollution. Grazing in California is a nonpoint source of water pollution that is not currently regulated statewide. Examples of nonpoint source pollution that may be associated with grazing include discharges of sediment from the erosion of stream banks, discharges of bacteria from livestock feces that get into the surface water, and increased temperature of streams caused from trampling of riparian habitat. The participation of interested stakeholders in the development of a statewide grazing regulatory strategy is crucial to its success. Thus, the Water Boards engaged stakeholder groups by soliciting initial public comments in 2014 and early 2015. Water Board staff will compile all input from these outreach sessions and consider it in the development of the GRAP proposal during 2015.