WSR 16-07-158

[Filed March 23, 2016, 11:30 a.m.]

The process of updating Washington's statewide water quality assessment for fresh and marine waters is now underway. This assessment includes Category 5 – the state's 303(d) list of impaired waters – as well as other categories that describe the status of water quality in Washington. This assessment will result in submittal of the next "Integrated Report" to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to meet requirements of the federal Clean Water Act. More information about the water quality assessment process can be found at www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/303d/2016index.html.

Ecology is requesting data and information collected from Washington state waters by any organization within the ten year period between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2015. For a dataset to be used in the assessment, the data must have been collected in accordance with documented quality assurance procedures and must be representative of ambient water quality conditions at the time the data were collected. Numeric sampling and monitoring data must be submitted to ecology's environmental information management (EIM) data base (www.ecy.wa.gov/eim) to be used for the assessment. Data entered into other federal and state data bases are also accessed for the assessment. Data that has been submitted to these data bases or to ecology does not need to be submitted again. For questions about submitting other data types or information, please contact department of ecology. To ensure that your data is able to be used for the next water quality assessment, the data needs to be submitted to ecology by June 30, 2016.

Questions about the water quality assessment process, or requests for assistance in submitting data and information should be directed to Patrick Lizon, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600, phone (360) 407-6782, e-mail 303d@ecy.wa.gov.