Department of Environmental Quality

 

GDForum ID: 2899

Description of Proposed Guidance Document Changes

DEQ has incorporated relevant EPA integrated reporting guidance (EPA Guidance) into the Virginia 2026 Water Quality Assessment Guidance. The 2026 assessment guidance is designed to integrate or combine the 305(b) overall assessment of Virginia’s waters and separate out those waters impaired and needing a TMDL as per Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. The EPA Guidance and the Assessment, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Tracking and Implementation System (ATTAINS) provide five different assessment categories in which every AU will be placed. The EPA Guidance allows the states to subdivide the federal categories to address state programmatic needs. Virginia’s 2026 assessment guidance contains the categories and subcategories Virginia has chosen for enhanced tracking and data management purposes. Virginia’s 2026 assessment guidance contains a number of changes, all enumerated in Section 1 of the guidance.

 

Guidance Document(s) for this Comment Forum

Document ID	Document Title	Current Document	Proposed Document	Revised Proposed
GM23-2002	Final 2024 Water Quality Assessment Guidance Manual	Document	To Be Deleted
GM25-2003	2026 Water Quality Assessment Guidance	n/a	Proposed Document

 

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