An Introduction to North Carolinas Water Quality Program

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An Introduction to North Carolinas Water Quality
Program
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Why Protect Water Quality?

• Water supply
• Aquatic Life
• Recreation
• Industry
• Power Generation
• Irrigation
• Transportation

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Water Cycle

• No new water- limited resource
• We drink the same water the dinosaurs drank
• Groundwater and surface water- all part of the
  same system

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North Carolina Groundwater Resources are
protected!

• Protected and managed by the Division of Water
  Quality
• State statutes (laws) and federal Safe Drinking
  Water Act and Clean Water Act

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Federal Clean Water Act (1972)

• Focuses on surface water
• Achieve a water quality level (provides for
  fish, shellfish, and wildlife and protection and
  propagation and recreation in all waters)
• Eliminate the discharge of pollutants into US
  waters by 1985

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North Carolina- Surface Water

• Water Quality program delegated from EPA to NC
• Uses, Classifications, and Standards
• uses shall be protected by properly classifying
  surface waters and having standards sufficient to
  protect these uses. (15A NCAC 02B .0201)

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North Carolina River Basin Program

• Non-regulatory watershed based approach to
  protecting and restoring NC surface waters
• Coordinates with permitting (e.g., interbasin
  transfer of water)
• Basinwide water quality plans
• Public participation encouraged

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What is a river basin? Watershed?

• River basin All of the land draining to a major
  river system
• Watershed The land area draining into a smaller
  body of water, such as a creek, stream, pond,
  etc.
• A river basin consists of many watersheds

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Watershed
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The streams and rivers of a river basin are a
continuum through many communities, land cover
types, and various land uses.

• We all have a fundamental responsibility to
  protect our resources

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Primary goal of North Carolinas Water Quality
Program?

• Protect and Restore uses of North Carolinas
  Surface waters.

Uses?
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What are designated uses?

• Protection and propagation of aquatic life
• Recreation (fishing, swimming, etc.)
• Shellfish harvesting
• Fish consumption
• Water supply
• Note above items are similar to the Why Protect
  Water slide

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Primary goal of North Carolinas Water Quality
Program?
Protect and Restore uses of North Carolinas
Surface waters.
HOW?
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Uses, Classifications, Standards

• A waters use is determined
• Classifications are assigned to water according
  to their uses
• Standards are then developed to protect the
  use(s) for a given classification

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NC- Use, Classification, Standard

• Use- Aquatic Life Protection
• Classification- C
• Standard for Nickel 88 ug/l
• Use- Drinking Water Supply
• Classification- Water Supply (WS I-V)
• Standard for Nickel 25 ug/l

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How do we measure water quality (conduct use
support assessment?)

• Biological water quality testing (done by the NC
  Division of Water Quality)
• Benthic Macroinvertebrate Sampling
• Aquatic Macroinvertebrates (abundance of species,
  pollution tolerance, diversity of species)
• Fish community and tissue sampling

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How do we measure water quality (conduct use
support assessment?)

• Chemical water quality testing (done by the NC
  Division of Water Quality)
• Ambient water quality monitoring
• Chemical water quality sampling is performed
  monthly at almost 400 stations around the state
• Some parameters studied pH, metals, bacteria,
  dissolved oxygen, and others
• Water chemistry
• Oxygen demand from bottom sediments
• Discharges from some wastewater treatment
  facilities may consume too much oxygen. Sediment
  is sampled to look for these discharges

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Data analysis allows us to determine if we are
supporting the standards or not

• Supporting- criteria not exceeded
• Impaired- criteria exceeded
• Not rated- inconclusive data
• No data- no assessment made

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GIS use DENR-DWQ continues to expand and improve
GIS use

• Helps develop decision-making models
• Helps enforcement of water quality laws

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We will consider the major pollution threats to
our water soon.!

• Stay tuned!