AMSA Regulatory Alert (RA 02-5)

To: Members & Affiliates, and Legal Affairs Committee
From: National Office
Date: March 21, 2002
Subject: AMSA REPORT ON INTEGRATED STATE WATER QUALITY LISTS
Reference: RA 02-5

On March 11, 2002, AMSA, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the Federal Water Quality Coalition released a joint report on how to improve state Clean Water Act (CWA) total maximum daily load (TMDL) listing processes (CWA §303(d)) and state comprehensive water quality reports (CWA §305(b)). AMSA and the co-sponsoring organizations released the report, entitled Preparation of Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Reports: Recommendations for State Methodologies and Reporting (Integrated Report Recommendations), before attendees at the mid-winter meeting of the Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Authorities (ASIWPCA), in Alexandria, VA. Integrated Report Recommendations was well-received by the state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials present at the meeting, who clearly appreciated the effort required for a diverse group of stakeholders (publicly owned treatment works, agriculture, and industry) to develop joint recommendations.

AMSA hopes that this document, created in part with AMSA's Technical Action Fund, will be a useful tool for member agencies to use with state regulators who are now preparing integrated §303(d) and §305(b) lists for the October 1, 2002 deadline. Integrated Report Recommendations includes a comprehensive summary of our recommendations, and several appendices containing examples of well-written, existing state listing regulations and policies. To encourage widespread distribution of Integrated Report Recommendations and its accompanying appendices, the documents are available on the publicly accessible portion of AMSA's website at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/wqmar/. We encourage all AMSA members to share and discuss these documents with the regulators responsible for waterbody listings and preparation of integrated reports in your state.

Background on Impaired Waters Assessment and Listing
Under current federal regulations, states must submit their CWA §303(d) lists of impaired waters, as well as the methodologies used to prepare them, by October 1, 2002. On November 19, 2001, EPA issued a document entitled Integrated Listing and Assessment Guidance (Integrated Guidance; see AMSA RA 01-21). This document recommends that states combine their §303(d) impaired waters lists with their §305(b) reports on overall statewide water quality, to create a single Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report (Integrated Report). Notably, however, the Integrated Guidance is very general, and does not specifically address many details that states will face in revising their listing methodologies and developing their Integrated Reports. Integrated Report Recommendations offers concrete suggestions to address those missing details and makes several sound, science-based recommendations to states undertaking the integrated listing process.

Topics Covered in the Report
Integrated Report Recommendations begins with a comprehensive, clearly written summary of current federal regulatory requirements for CWA §303(d) lists and CWA §305(b) reports, and of EPA's Integrated Guidance. The report discusses in detail how states can best implement these requirements in a scientifically sound and legally defensible manner. Where states already have addressed these issues successfully, the appendices to Integrated Report Recommendations contain actual text from those state rules and methodologies. Specifically, Integrated Report Recommendations addresses the following key areas:

• Pre-listing evaluation of water quality standards (WQS), including:
  • Revision of WQS
  • Designated uses
  • Water quality criteria
  • Use attainability analyses

• Collection of data and information, including:
  • Data needs
  • Quality assurance
  • Third party data

• Evaluation of existing data and information, including:
  • Available data
  • State methodologies
  • Period of record
  • Data sets representative of different water body types
  • Minimum number of samples
  • Presumed standards
  • Determining impairment based on exceedances
  • Monitored versus probabilistic and evaluated data
  • Weight of evidence approach
  • Detection and quantitation levels
  • Invalid data
  • Assessment of fish consumption advisories
  • Temperature exceedences
  • Evaluation of narrative criteria
  • Narrative criteria translators
  • Procedures to evaluate attainment of narrative criteria
  • Evaluation of ambient toxicity

• Development of the integrated reports, including:
  • Categorization of water bodies
  • Threatened waters
  • Form of integrated reports
  • Prioritizing and scheduling
  • Stakeholder participation; and

• Delisting procedures; including:
  • Delisting process
  • Reassessment of currently listed water bodies.

Next Steps
We hope that Integrated Report Recommendations and its appendices provide useful guidance to AMSA member agencies interacting with their state regulators. Again, we encourage all AMSA members to share and discuss the document with the officials responsible for waterbody listings and preparation of integrated reports in your state. For further information on the report or the overall project, please contact AMSA's General Counsel, Alexandra Dunn, at 202/533-1803 or adunn@amsa-cleanwater.org.