States are required, under the Clean Water Act, to regularly assess their waters to meet sections 303(d) and 305(b) of the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved Ecology’s September 2015 submittal of our latest Water Quality Assessment on July 22, 2016.
Ecology started the next water quality assessment process this last winter with:
- A call for water quality data and information collected through December 2015 that will be used for the next assessment of fresh and marine waters in Washington.
- A 60-day scoping process to solicit ideas on areas of the Water Quality Program Policy 1-11,Assessment of Water Quality for the Clean Water Act Sections 303(d) and 305(b) Integrated Report, that need to be reviewed and updated. This Policy guides how Ecology uses data to determine the water quality status for individual waterbodies.
With EPA’s recent approval of Washington’s Water Quality Assessment, Ecology will begin a public process to revise Policy 1-11 based on the comments we received during the scoping process.
To launch the Policy 1-11 revisions process, we will hold a public workshop on November 14th to orient people to the Water Quality Assessment Policy and to the key issues we will be looking at and possibly revising based on the outcome of further discussions and analysis. The Policy 1-11 Public Workshop will be held from 10:00am – 4:00pm at the auditorium of the Ecology Headquarters building in Lacey. We will also conduct the workshop as a webinar so that people who choose not to attend in person at the Ecology building in Lacey can participate by calling in from their respective location. This will be an introduction/kick-off meeting to provide background information on the Assessment and how Policy 1-11 is used. It will also lay out the process we will use to look at possible changes to that policy based on scoping comments that were received. If you are interested in participating, please save the date on your calendar.
Agenda and more information on the November 14 Public Workshop & webinar will be coming soon.
Background information on the Policy 1-11 revisions public process, including a summary of the scoping comments that were received and copies of the comment letters, can be found on Ecology’s website at: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/303d/proposed/index.html.
Questions or comments about the assessment or Policy 1-11 should be directed to Patrick Lizon (email: patrick.lizon@ecy.wa.gov; phone: 360-407-6782).
Thank you for your interest in protecting water quality in Washington State.
Susan Braley
Watershed Management Section
Phone: (360) 407-6414
email: susan.braley@ecy.wa.gov