Water Quality > Washington State's Water Quality Assessment and 303(d) List > 2012 Freshwater Water Quality Assessment and 303(d) List

Proposed 2012 Freshwater Assessment and 303(d) List for Washington State

Ecology’s 2012 Freshwater Water Quality Assessment (WQA) will cover all freshwater data collected by May 1, 2011. The result will be the 2012 candidate 303(d) list for freshwater, which Ecology will submit to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval. The next candidate 303(d) list for marine waters is planned for 2014, as we implement an alternating schedule of marine- and fresh-water quality assessments.

Guiding Documents & Revisions to Washington State’s Assessment Policy 1-11

The 2012 freshwater assessment will be based on the most recent state water quality standards approved by EPA (Chapter 175-201A WAC, 2006 version, and Chapter 173-204 WAC) and the state’s assessment policies:

• Program Policy 1-11, Chapter 1, Assessment of Water Quality for the Clean Water Act Sections 303(d) and 305(b) Integrated Report.
• Program Policy 1-11, Chapter 2, Ensuring Credible Data for Water Quality Management.

Policy 1-11 is currently under revision. Following public review, these revisions will be finalized and used to guide the freshwater water quality assessment. Information about these Policy 1-11 revisions are available on Ecology’s web site at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/303d/policy1-11Rev.html.

Changes in the Map Presentation of River & Stream Data

To promote national consistency in measurement and reporting, EPA recommended that states use the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for segmentation of waterbodies. Starting with the 2012 Water Quality Assessment for fresh waters, Ecology is moving to a segmentation system based on the NHD at the 1:24,000 scale. Differences to previous assessment results are a natural outcome of changing segment sizes.

Call for Data

Ecology requested freshwater water quality data for Washington State’s Water Quality Assessment, which includes the Section 303(d) list of impaired waters. The deadline for submitting data for consideration in this freshwater water quality assessment was August 31, 2011.

Note: You can submit numeric data directly into EIM at any time for consideration in future water quality assessments. If you need assistance in submitting data into EIM please contact Adam Oestreich.

Tentative Timeline for the 2012 Freshwater Water Quality Assessment

This timeline is subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this web site.

	Date
Call for data	Done
EIM training for data submitters, Policy 1-11 review, and NHD review	Done
Initial Data Assessment	In process, will conclude Spring 2012
Draft Assessment - Internal review	Spring 2012
Draft Assessment - Tribal  review	Summer 2012
Draft Assessment - External Review (public comment period)	Fall 2012
Final Assessment - submitted to EPA for approval	Winter 2012-2013

 

For questions about the 2012 water quality assessment process, please contact:

Ken Koch
Water Quality Program
Washington State Department of Ecology
P.O. Box 47600
Olympia, WA 98504-7600
Phone: (360) 407-6782
E-mail: 303d@ecy.wa.gov

 

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