Wisconsin’s List of Impaired Waters Under the Clean Water Act

Background: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is required under federal law to produce a list of waters that do not meet water quality standards, also known as the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) List of Impaired Waters. This is a list of waters that do not meet minimum requirements for protecting fish, wildlife, and various recreational uses. For example, a water body that has excessive green algal growth would be placed on the DNR’s list of impaired waters.

The purpose of the 303(d) list is to help the DNR determine which waters need additional protection and clean-up to bring them within the "fishable/swimmable" goals of the Clean Water Act. The DNR is required to rank the impaired waters according to the severity of the pollution, and then develop clean up plans for those waters known as Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs).

A TMDL is simply a calculation of the total amount of pollution a waterbody can withstand without violation water quality standards. These clean up plans can be thought of as pies, where each source of pollution is permitted a slice of the pie (pollution), with a margin of safety to account for any errors the DNR might make. Because of the significance of these TMDL cleanup plans, it is critically important to properly list waters that are impaired and therefore need cleanup

The DNR proposed its 2002 list of impaired waters in September, 2002. MEA submitted comments on behalf of several statewide environmental organizations regarding the list. The DNR did not produce a formal methodology for determining which waters should be listed as impaired until after the close of the public comment period, impeding the public’s ability to comment on the list. Moreover, even the methodology the DNR created lacks the detail and explanation needed to help the public determine which streams should be listed as impaired, and which should not.

Status: MEA has been successful in getting the DNR to improve its methodology for how it makes decisions to list a water as impaired on the 303(d) list. MEA's work resulted in the addition of up to 33 waters to the 2002 list. Despite the improved listing methodology, however, the 2004 list only included 7 new waters.

• MEA is leading the Clean Water Coaltion's administrative advocacy efforts to get the DNR to:
• improve and adeqautely fund its water quality monitoring program required under Clean Water Act section 106(e)
• follow through with its commitment to establish volunteer citizen monitoring protocols and use this information for 303(d) listing decisions
• enlist citizen activists and watershed organization to collect data in preparing the 303(d) list make appropriately inclusive listing decisions for the 2006 list; and start prioritizing waters for clean up.
  

Read MEA’s October 4, 2002 comments on the proposed 303(d) list: [MEAcomments.pdf 136 KB]
Read MEA’s follow-up letter to the DNR regarding the DNR’s response to comments[DNRletter.pdf 73 KB]

Read the EPA reply regarding the Approval of 2002 Section 303(d) List.

You can access Wisconsin’s 303(d) list on the DNR's website at http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/wm/wqs/303d/index.html. 

To view other state’s methodologies for preparing their lists of impaired waters, see below:
Iowa (http://www.state.ia.us/dnr/organiza/epd/wtresrce/files/imp2002.htm)
Illinois (http://www.epa.state.il.us/water/watershed/reports/303d-report/2002-report/303d-report-2002.pdf)