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2006 Integrated Report Guidance Fact Sheet
Availability of Final 2006 Integrated Report Guidance
July 2005
Summary: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the Guidance for 2006 Assessment, Listing, and Reporting Requirements Pursuant to Sections 303(d), 305(b), and 314 of the Clean Water Act [2006 Integrated Report Guidance (IRG)]. This guidance is for states, territories, authorized tribes, and interstate commissions that help states prepare and submit section 305(b) reports (hereinafter referred to as "jurisdictions"). It outlines development of biennial Integrated Reports (IR) that would support EPA's strategy for achieving a broad-scale inventory of water quality conditions.
Each IR will:
report on the water quality standards attainment status of all waters,
document the availability of data and information for each water,
identify certain trends in water quality conditions, and
provide information to managers in setting priorities for future actions to protect and restore the health of our nation's water resources.
The objective of this guidance is to provide jurisdictions
a recommended reporting format, and
suggested content to be used in developing a single document that integrates the reporting requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) sections 303(d), 305(b), and 314 (pursuant to the CWA, jurisdictions report to EPA biannually on the condition of waters within their boundaries).
Highlights: This document is a comprehensive compilation of relevant guidance EPA has issued to date regarding IR; however, there are few specific changes from the 2004 guidance. The 2006 IRG provides:
increased emphasis on the use of the Assessment Database (ADB) or compatible electronic data format (the ADB is being modified to accommodate the recent format, content, and multi-category listing option that the guidance suggests),
greater clarity on the content and the format of those components of the IR recommended and required under CWA sections 303(d), 305(b) and 314,
greater clarity on issues associated with data solicitation, collection, consideration, and interpretation of water quality standards,
additional information on the option to report water quality status of individual segments in more than one category (e.g., to show that some designated uses of a water are being attained and some designated uses are not), and
additional clarity and flexibility on undertaking and reporting alternatives to total maximum daily loads for attaining water quality standards (e.g., utilization of reporting "Category 4b")
Background: EPA has established a goal that 56 jurisdictions utilize the integrated reporting format by 2008. EPA continues to promote this comprehensive assessment approach in order to enhance the jurisdictions’ ability to track both programmatic and environmental goals of the CWA, and ideally, to increase the pace of achieving these important environmental goals.
This document includes recommendations designed to allow States and other interested stakeholders to track the progress of interim management actions by employing the multi-category reporting framework. By issuing this guidance well in advance of the April 1, 2006 deadline for submission of CWA section 303(d) lists and section 305(b) reports, EPA intends to encourage the broadest possible adoption of the integrated reporting approach.
A draft of the final document was provided for public review earlier in the year. The final 2006 IRG is posted at http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/2006IRG. If you have any questions regarding the guidance, please contact Sarah Furtak at (202) 566-1167.