Delaware Water Quality Standards Program

As established under the Clean Water Act (CWA), water quality standards are the regulations which list designated uses, water quality criteria and an antidegradation policy. The standards have been established to protect public health and welfare and enhance water quality in the State. While the standards are Delaware regulations, they must be approved by the EPA. If the EPA cannot approve the standards, then EPA is mandated to take over the process and set standards for state waters in a process known as promulgation. Failure by the state or EPA to implement the requirements of the CWA subjects the EPA to citizen law suits to enforce the provisions of the Act.

Designated uses are the water uses specified in water quality standards for each water body. The CWA requires that the uses are to be achieved and protected, even if they are not currently being attained. A water body can have more than one designated use. Current designated uses in Delaware include the following 9 categories:

Water quality criteria are designed to ensure the achievement of the designated uses assigned to each water body or segment. The criteria are expressed as concentrations, parameter levels or as narrative statements. It is assumed that if criteria are met, designated uses will be protected.

To receive EPA approval, each state's water quality standards must include an antidegradation statement and policy. The policy is intended to maintain existing uses and the level of water quality necessary to protect those uses. Under certain circumstances high quality waters may have their quality lowered, but their uses must still be protected and the public must be informed and involved in the decision to allow the quality to be lowered.

The final CWA requirement for state water quality standards is that a public review of them occurs every three years. This process is referred to as the Triennial Review. Delaware recently completed a Triennial Review and promulgated new Standards based on that review. See the document below.

Documents

Documents are made available in .pdf format, which requires the Adobe Acrobat Viewer.

Currently available documents include:

State of Delaware Surface Water Quality Standards (As Amended July 11, 2004)
Antidegradation Policy

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