Polluted Waters Identification

Impaired Waters Lists

What is the Impaired Waters List?

States are required to collect water quality data and information on the state of waters and support of designated uses (human health, fish) across the state. The Clean Water Act requires states, or EPA where states fail, to compare these data to the water quality standards every two years. The result is a list of waters that violate the water quality standards—that is they have levels of pollution that is unhealthy for people and other living things. This list is called the “303(d) list,” based on the section of the Clean Water Act that requires it or the “impaired waters list.” As with water quality standards, states must submit this list to EPA for approval or disapproval. If EPA disapproves the list, EPA must then fix it.

Oregon and Washington have a long history of failing to issue timely and complete impaired waters lists.  In Oregon, the impaired waters list has grown from 11 waters in the late 1980s to 2,909 segments that violate water quality standards currently.  Oregon missed preparing lists in 2004, 2008, 2014, 2016, and 2018 and EPA took no action to remedy the problem.  In 2010 and 2012, EPA was forced to disapprove Oregon’s lists for their failure to include all impaired waters in the state, adding 870 and 999 water pollution/segment combinations respectively.  Oregon routinely ignores large parts of its water quality standards, including failing to use “information” (such as evidence of deformed animals) and instead only using water quality data; failing to seek information and data from state and federal agencies that collect it; ignoring narrative criteria and use protection that are essential parts of state water quality standards; ignoring data collected by volunteers; evidence of nutrient pollution, toxic pollution, and invasive species.

Washington has also missed many of its 303(d) lists of impaired waters, including lists due in 2006, 2014, 2016, and 2018 and it submitted only partial lists in 2010 and 2012.  EPA has never stepped in to complete Washington’s list when the state failed to act or disapproved the state’s lists for being inadequate.  Even so, Washington’s list has grown from 1,597 listed segments in 1996 to 4,548 segments in 2012.  Washington’s lists suffer from the same types of inadequacies found in Oregon.

What is the Purpose of the Impaired Waters List?

The identification of impaired waters is supposed to trigger two responses by states and EPA.  First, the Clean Water Act requires the agencies to develop pollution clean-up plans to bring these over-polluted waters into compliance with the water quality standards that provide protection for human health and species.  These clean-up plans are called Total Maximum Daily Loads or “TMDLs.”

Second, even in the absence of a TMDL, when an agency issues a pollution discharge permit under the Clean Water Act it must not allow that discharger to cause or contribute to violations of water quality standards.  Therefore, if the state or EPA knows that the industry or municipality is discharging a pollutant to a waterbody that has been identified as having an unsafe level of that pollutant, the permit writer must put a cap on how much the facility can discharge.  Unfortunately, states and EPA routinely ignore both of these Clean Water Act imperatives.  They have fallen very far behind in developing the  TMDL clean-up plans that determine the respective responsibilities for pollution sources.  And they very often issue permits that allow for continued contributions to known water quality problems.  NWEA has brought numerous lawsuits that relate to both of these failures to follow the law.