Publication Summary

The federal Clean Water Act gives states the primary responsibility for protecting and restoring water quality, including monitoring and assessing the nation′s waters and reporting on their quality. This document describes Washington State′s current water quality monitoring programs, evaluates where additional monitoring is needed, and outlines the strategies that the Department of Ecology will employ to meet the monitoring goals outlined in the federal Clean Water Act. The document follows a format recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The 2003 EPA publication, Elements of a State Water Monitoring and Assessment Program, recommends the basic elements of a state water monitoring program and serves as a tool to help EPA and the states determine whether a monitoring program meets the prerequisites of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 106(e)(1). States are required to develop a monitoring program addressing the ten elements identified.

The first of these elements is a long-term monitoring strategy. This strategy should be state-specific, be designed from the monitoring capabilities each state already has, and include a timeline not to exceed ten years to complete implementation. The strategy is intended to be comprehensive in scope and identify the technical issues and resource needs that currently impede development of an adequate monitoring program.

The purpose of this document is to (1) describe the elements of Washington State′s water monitoring program, (2) articulate the state′s programmatic and resource needs, and (3) serve as a tool to help EPA and the state determine whether the monitoring program meets the prerequisites of CWA Section 106(e)(1).