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Water
Quality Standards Workshop
Water affects everyone's daily
lives: we drink it, we swim in it, we fish in it, and use it
in many other ways. Nearly every aspect of our lives depends
upon our having high-quality available for our needs. In
1972, The United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act.
The Act's purpose
is the restoration of the physical and biological
integrity of our nation’s waters, making all of the country's
water swimmable and fishable. Delaware's implementation of
the Act includes developing Water Quality Standards and revising
them whenever necessary.
DNREC
is preparing to
revise the state's water quality standards again in the near
future.
Delaware's
Water Quality Standards define water quality goals by designating
a water body's uses, setting criteria to protect those uses,
and establishing provisions to protect the water from becoming
polluted. Designated uses include, but are not limited
to: fish, aquatic life and wildlife,
primary contact recreation (swimming), harvestable shellfish waters,
and public water supply. There are nine defined categories
of criteria in all. Your participation in the process of
developing the best possible standards is an important key to our
success.
The
Clean Water Act is designed to ensure that all members of the
public have a voice in decisions
related to local water quality. On August
14 at 3:30pm in the DNREC auditorium, we invite you to participate
in an opportunity to express your thoughts and concerns about
water quality in your community.
The
Watershed Assessment Branch of DNREC will be holding a Water
Quality Standards
workshop
coordinated by Dave Wolanski,
a DNREC Environmental Scientist. This workshop will discuss's
what goes into water quality standards and how the proposed criteria
were arrived at. You can download
a copy of the previous standards along with the new proposed
standards prior to attending the workshop.
At the
workshop and afterwards,
you can voice your opinions on
the proposed standards. After the workshop, the proposed standards
will be presented at a public hearing and comment session in
November. Finally, after
considering comments received during this process, the revised
standards will be modified as needed and submitted as an official
proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who will
then review
them for compliance with EPA standards. EPA is required
to promulgate
standards
that will meet EPA requirements for any areas they find inadequate.
Dave feels
that this workshop is important because to ensure you have
an active voice in the uses and goals that are set for Delaware’s
water bodies.
Why
should you be interested? Water Quality
Standards are enacted
as the basis for the assessments of
the health of the water bodies you live near and use. Monitoring
based on those standards determine whether uses are being protected,
and whether Total Maximum Daily Loads
(TMDLs)
are met.
When
TMDLs are being developed the Department starts by looking
at what improvements
in water
quality
are needed in order to meet Water Quality Standards and what
pollution loads are currently having adverse impacts. Computer
models are used to predict what amount of a pollutant affecting
dissolved oxygen, nutrient loading, and other factors are allowable
each day to meet the applicable standard and protect designated
uses.
Working
together, you and the members of the Tributary Action Teams can
help develop the standards to protect the water that have
such an
impact on our daily lives.
For
more information on the workshop please contact Dave
Wolanski at david.wolanski@state.de.us,
or by calling 302-739-4590.
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