Federally Promulgated Water Quality Standards for Specific States, Territories, and Tribes

Pursuant to Clean Water Act section 303(c)(4), EPA may promulgate federal water quality standards (WQS) for a particular state, authorized tribe, or territory (hereinafter referred to as “state”) under two scenarios:

1. EPA disapproves specific state WQS as being inconsistent with Clean Water Act requirements, or
2. The EPA Administrator makes a “determination” under section 303(c)(4)(B) of the Clean Water Act that a particular state WQS are not consistent with the Clean Water Act.

Federally promulgated WQS are located in 40 CFR 131 Subpart D-Federally Promulgated Water Quality Standards and in 40 CFR 132.6, Application of part 132 [Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System] requirements in Great Lakes States and Tribes. These federal promulgations are subject to federal rulemaking procedures.

The federally promulgated WQS remain the applicable WQS for Clean Water Act purposes until the following occurs:

• the state submits appropriate WQS to replace the federal WQS,
• EPA approves those federal replacement WQS, and
• EPA withdraws the corresponding federal WQS for the state.

OR

• the state adopts and EPA approves WQS more stringent than the federal replacement WQS.

Using the Table

The interactive table is organized by the affected regulation, date, type, citation, and title.  Selecting a column heading sorts the table by that column.  You can also search the table using the search box just above the table.  For example, you can try the following:

• Type "Missouri" for regulations, etc. for Missouri.
• Type "131.36" for 40 CFR 131.36 and the Federal Register Notices that have amended it.
• Type "1-Reg" (a type* included in the table) for all the federal WQS regulations in the table.

The types for each table row are the following:

• 1-Reg: Regulations.  These rows link to the current regulation as published in the Code of Federal Regulations.
• 2-FR: Federal Register Notices.  These rows link to notices published in the Federal Register that have amended (or propose to amend) their respective CFR regulation.
• 3-Det: Determinations.  These rows describe determinations that new or revised WQS are necessary.
• 4-Web: Web Pages. These rows link to EPA web pages dedicated to their respective federal WQS or determination.