The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is currently assigning appropriate "designated uses" to streams previously considered swimmable and fishable. It is important for ICA members to be involved in this process to determine whether or not the use of the neighborhood streams is being accurately depicted. Please go to our Web site to access more information and submit a county report on Stream Use Designation.

Information compiled by the Iowa Farm Bureau.

Water Quality Standards Proposed Rules
Background
Water quality standards are important to agriculture because the standards define whether a water body is polluted. Because agriculture is the predominant land use in most Iowa watersheds, farmers can play a part in meeting these standards. The DNR can directly affect farmers by including nonpoint sources in their watershed improvement plans and in the implementation of those plans.

Water quality standards include four items: (1) numeric standards for pollutant concentrations; (2) narrative standards; (3) designated uses for the water body; and, (4) antidegradation standards (water quality can't get worse than current quality). If the water body doesn't meet the standards for the "designated use," it is considered to be "impaired" or polluted. Over the past year, the DNR and the Environmental Protection Commission have made several of these items more stringent. For example, last year the DNR adopted a rule adopting a presumed designated use of A1 swimmable and B1 game fishable for all perennial streams. When the DNR adopted this presumption it committed to going back and evaluating whether these designated uses were appropriate. This evaluation is called a "use attainability analysis" (UAA).

Current rulemaking efforts
The process of doing these UAA evaluations have resulted in two proposed rules. These two rules address the designated uses of streams for recreational and aquatic life uses.

Recreation use protocols
First, a rule describing the UAA evaluation protocols was approved for public comment. This protocol explains how the DNR evaluates the streams for recreational use. The DNR protocols for evaluating aquatic life was previously adopted.

This rule has been sent out for public comment.

Designated Use for Recreation Rule
Second, the major portion of this effort will involve assigning an appropriate "designated use" to the streams previously presumed to be A1-swimmable and B1-game fishable. A "downgrade" from the presumed use of the stream must go through rulemaking. A summary and descriptions of the types of use designations can be found at: www.iowadnr.com/water/standards/summary.html.

The information the DNR has collected for each stream to support this rulemaking can be found at http://programs.iowadnr.gov/uaa/search.aspx. The information is searchable by stream, city or discharging facility. Click on the name of the county for a list of streams being designated in your county.

It is important to become involved in this process to determine whether or not the use of the neighborhood stream is being accurately depicted.

Important Notice