LENEXA, KS, Oct. 27, 2014 -- The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) recently received a decision letter from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 regarding the state's proposed new and revised Water Quality Standards (WQS).
The EPA has approved most proposed changes, including Missouri's decision to protect previously unclassified lakes and streams for certain uses listed in the federal Clean Water Act (CWA).
States are required by federal law to review their WQS at least every three years and submit any new or revised standards to the EPA for review and approval or disapproval. EPA Region 7 received MDNR's new and revised standards on March 19, 2014, and, after concluding its review and decision process, the Agency issued its official decision letter to MDNR on Oct. 22, 2014.
In the letter (available here), the EPA lists the following decision actions:
- Approval of new and revised terms and definitions describing the aquatic habitat protection uses applied in Missouri
- Approval of new definitions for state and national datasets used for documenting the names and locations of the state's rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs, which have been assigned designated uses
- Approval of new regulatory language that assigns specific uses and protections to many formerly unclassified waters in Missouri
- Approval of new authorization language for the Missouri Use Designation Dataset, which will be maintained and updated by MDNR to reflect any changes to the state's designated uses
- Partial approval and partial disapproval of the uses assigned to newly classified waters in the state's new dataset
See also:
"EPA helps Missouri comply with water quality standards"
"List of impaired waters in Missouri finalized"
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