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EPA Rejects Iowa's Designated Use Changes for 93 Waterbodies

  • Jul 06, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ (IDNR) designated use changes for 64 waterbodies and disapproved changes for 93 waterbodies.

Designated uses describe the achievable recreational activities and aquatic life uses in Iowa’s waters. EPA is finalizing action on the remaining 19 waterbodies.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) presumes that all waters are suitable for the highest levels of recreation, such as swimming, and that the waters can support a diverse community of aquatic life. A state must present a well-documented study to set a lower goal. EPA found that the studies submitted by IDNR did not support a lower designated use for the 93 disapprovals.

CWA establishes a mandatory role for EPA to review and approve or disapprove all state water quality standards. IDNR submitted new and revised Iowa surface water quality standards to EPA for review and approval, as required by the law. This submission updates the use designations for many of the state’s waters following site-specific field studies to determine the highest attainable use for the individual waters.

EPA’s June 29 decision letter provides a more detailed description of EPA’s review and the basis for this action. The decision letter is available at www.epa.gov/region07/news_events/legal.

Comments

Thu, Jul 8, 2010 Rich Stewart ohio

"time for the EPA to be abolished." Really? I don't know what your career is, but your hyperbole seems unrealistic. True, EPA sometimes focuses on issues that may not seem to make sense in a particular locale or even a particular state. Sometimes their actions seem to take much longer than necessary but come on. If thats how you really feel, you should visit a country without an effective environmental protection agency, or better yet, move there. I've been in third world countries where you can not only not touch or drink the water, you can't hardly breath the air.

Wed, Jul 7, 2010 Les Stuart Tennessee

The EPA's control over a State's water designations is an absolute travesty and thir lack of knowledge and understanding continues to amaze me although I have encountered their incompetence for over thirty five years now. How can a ditch that regularly has no flow be considered suitable for swimming and other "highest attainable use?" The iron-fisted control held over State regulatory agencies is irresponsible and very counter-productive. There have been few instances in my career where the EPA's involvement has been helpful or even reasonable. There is no way to even calculate the money that has been literally flushed down the toilet and wasted under the guise of providing cleaner, safer potable, recreational and navigatible waters. It is time for the EPA to be abolished and organizations set in place that understand and possess realtistic, knowledge -- Not Utopian Fantasies) for application to the challenges facing the water industry. The EPA is a nightmare that never stops haunting!

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