Under the Clean Water Act, a state shall from time-to-time hold public meetings for the purpose of reviewing applicable water quality standards and, as appropriate, modifying and adopting standards. See Chapter 61: Water Quality Standards. This review includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
- Designated Uses:
Any water body segment with a water quality standard that does not include A1, B(WW-1) shall be re-examined to determine if there is any new information available.
- Criteria:
New or old criteria for different constituents
- Antidegradation:
Protect existing water quality
The steps in this process include, or have included, the following:
- DNR initiated this process by meeting with our stakeholder groups in December 2010 and January 2011 to understand their interests and concerns.
- The department then held public meetings in six locations across the state in February and March 2011 to gauge the interests of the public.
- After all the public and stakeholder comments were received, the department convened a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) in June 2011 to review the comments and offer thoughts and feedback on these issues. This group helped us to evaluate which issues are immediately pressing, which changes are realistic, and if some would be infeasible at present. This was not a consensus-based group, but rather a means to gauge the issues to help us more fully understand the priority and timing in making the appropriate changes to our Water Quality Standards.
- DNR then prioritized the issues based on TAC comments, feedback from DNR staff with experience in those areas, and public and stakeholder comments. A Draft Triennial Review Process Summary and Work Plan was prepared that identified the selected goals for the next three years and detailed the process used by the department to reach this determination. A request for public feedback was conducted and feedback received. A Responsiveness Summary was prepared to address those comments.
- The Triennial Review process and its final results have been detailed in the Triennial Review Process Summary and Work Plan. A link to that document is included below. For those that would like to skip to just the final determinations, a Work Plan Only document has also been included.
Triennial Review Process key documents:
Triennial Review Technical Advisory Meeting: June 29, 2011
For questions about the Triennial Review, pleast contact Rochelle Cardinale:
Rochelle Cardinale
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
502 East 9th Street
Des Moines, IA 50319-0034
515-281-4736
Rochelle.Cardinale@dnr.iowa.gov