Water Quality > WQ Assessments [303(d)] > 2008 WQ Assessment Process

2008 Washington State Water Quality Assessment

The 2008 Water Quality Assessment 305(b) report and 303(d) list was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 29, 2009. The 2008 listing cycle satisfies the EPA’s requirements for both the 2006 and 2008 assessment periods.

2008 Water Quality Process:

Revised Policy for Listing (September 6, 2006):

• The revised Water Quality Policy 1-11, Chapter 1, describes listing decisions that Ecology makes for the Integrated Water Quality Assessment that describes the quality of Washington’s waters.

• Water Quality Policy 1-11, Chapter 2, describes how Ecology promotes the use of credible data in water quality decisions.

Call for Data (Sept. – Nov. 2006):

• A call for data was sent out to encourage members of the public to provide water quality data.

Data Compilation and Assessment (January 2007 – February 2008):

• Data used in the 2008 Water Quality Assessment were selected according to methods outlined in Policy 1-11.

• Assessed water bodies were placed into one of five categories.

• A list of studies used in this assessment allows viewers to review each complete study in the EIM database.

Public Review (February 5 - March 21, 2008 and April 16 – April 30, 2008):

• Public review periods were held for the candidate Water Quality Assessment.

• Public workshops were held in Lacey, Yakima, Spokane, and Bellevue.

• The public comment responsiveness summary shows each comment submitted during the comment periods and Ecology’s response to each comment. The summary is categorized in order of the commenter’s last name.

Submittal to EPA (June 23, 2008):

• The Department of Ecology formally submitted the 2008 Water Quality Assessment list to the EPA on June 23, 2008.

• As part of the submittal, Ecology is required to submit a schedule and prioritization for the establishment of TMDLS for waters listed in Category 5.

EPA Approval (January 29, 2009):

• The 2008 Water Quality Assessment was approved on January 29, 2009.

• The 2008 assessment is available for download as a spatial dataset on Ecology’s GIS data webpage.