Recommendations, 2006 Water Quality
Report to Congress

Many of Wisconsin's recommendations to USEPA and to the Congress can be addressed through a reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. These needs include national leadership on criteria, program guidance and funding commensurate with the range of activities required to fully implement the Clean Water Act. Wisconsin recommends the following actions to Congress and USEPA:

Congress and U.S. EPA should:


• Finalize national nutrient criteria guidance for surface waters.
• Provide national guidance on developing biologically based water quality standards for Fish and Aquatic Life, including:
  - Aquatic Life Uses for Upper Midwest Region landscape ecosystems,
  - Guidance on water quality criteria associated with these aquatic life communities, and
  - Guidance on anti-degradation implementation.
• Establish a schedule for the completion of national sediment quality criteria guidance.
• Reauthorize the Beach Act and implement program improvements identified during the first five years of program implementation. Provide flexibility for states in the adoption of pathogen indicators.
• Establish a more clearly defined and achievable program to develop and implement TMDLs, including:
  - developing national criteria for designating and delisting 303d impaired waters, and
  - leading multi-state efforts for regional issues, such as mercury TMDLs and listings.
• Develop clear regulations for discharges from sanitary sewer overflows.
• Regulate atmospheric mercury to levels that are protective of fish and aquatic life.
• Fully fund monitoring programs and require states to use the same conceptual approach for biologically based water quality criteria and assessment protocols.
• Provide a consistent source of fiscal support necessary to manage and share data with the Water Quality Exchange Network and the federal STORET Warehouse.
• Develop a sediment remediation program which includes:
  - specific standards or quality criteria,
  - timelines for implemention, and
  - a funding system to provide assistance to states for building state capacity and conducting remedial projects for sites identified in remedial action plans and lakewide management plans.
• Develop guidance that requires integration of water program standards and regulation of substances through the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); the Clean Air Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
• Create a method for states to collaborate on creating standards and to share standards between states once they have been developed to better support development of stormwater program technical standards and increase consistency between Region 5 states.
• Address discrepancies between regulatory clean up levels for PCBs under Superfund and clean up levels needed for water quality and aquatic life.
• Develop and enforce controls under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act for compounds found to be problematic for groundwater quality to a level protective of groundwater.
• Develop technical guidance and resources to support decisions related to wetland and riparian zone protection and management, particularly buffers for sensitive areas vulnerable to runoff.
• Modernize and simplify the permit compliance system (PCS) system for the NPDES program or implement other information systems or reporting mechanisms needed for the program.


• Provide support for agricultural runoff program by:
  - identifying potential best management practices for addressing discharges from subsurface drainage systems,
  - providing additional guidance on how to establish alternative discharge limitations for large CAFOs, and
  - identifying methods for determining equivalent practices for the 100 foot setback for land application of large CAFO manure and process wastewater.
  
  Congress should:
• Develop a continuing appropriation for USEPA and delegated states to support data systems needed to implement the Clean Water Act including monitoring, assessment, and permitting activities using new technologies that integrate complex data and allow dissemination of that data to partners, stakeholders and the public.
• Increase funding for Clean Water Act Section 106, 319, 104b(3) and 205(j) or local 604(b) related water quality efforts without sacrificing funding from other programs.

Last Revised: August 2006