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Final Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

 Final Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System
Final Rule

Federal Register: March 23, 1995, Page 15365-15366
40 CFR 9, 122, 123, 131, and 132

SUMMARY: EPA is publishing Final Water Quality Guidance for the Great 
Lakes System. Great Lakes States and Tribes will use the water quality 
criteria, methodologies, policies, and procedures in the Guidance to 
establish consistent, enforceable, long-term protection for fish and
shellfish in the Great Lakes and their tributaries, as well as for the 
people and wildlife who consume them.

The Guidance was initially developed by the Great Lakes States, EPA, 
and other Federal agencies in open dialogue with citizens, local 
governments, and industries in the Great Lakes ecosystem. It will affect 
all types of pollutants, but will target especially the types of 
long-lasting pollutants that accumulate in the food web of large lakes.

The Guidance consists of water quality criteria for 29 pollutants to 
protect aquatic life, wildlife, and human health, and detailed 
methodologies to develop criteria for additional pollutants; 
implementation procedures to develop more consistent, enforceable water
quality-based effluent limits in discharge permits, as well as total
maximum daily loads of pollutants that can be allowed to reach the Lakes 
and their tributaries from all sources; and antidegradation policies and 
procedures. 

Under the Clean Water Act, the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, 
Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin must adopt 
provisions into their water quality standards and NPDES permit programs 
within two years (by March 23, 1997) that are consistent with the
Guidance, or EPA will promulgate the provisions for them. The Guidance 
for the Great Lakes System will help establish consistent, enforceable, 
long-term protection from all types of pollutants, but will place 
short-term emphasis on the types of long-lasting pollutants that 
accumulate in the food web and pose a threat to the Great Lakes System. 
The Guidance includes minimum water quality criteria, antidegradation 
policies, and implementation procedures that provide a coordinated 
ecosystem approach for addressing existing and possible pollutant 
problems and improves consistency in water quality standards and 
permitting procedures in the Great Lakes System. In addition, the
Guidance provisions help establish consistent goals or minimum
requirements for Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) and Lakewide Management 
Plans (LaMPs) that are critical to the success of international 
multi-media efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes ecosystem.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kenneth A. Fenner, Water Quality
Branch Chief (WQS-16J), U.S. EPA Region 5, 77 W. Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago, IL 60604 (312-353-2079).

 
 

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