Water Quality Report (WQR) Data Dictionary

Water Quality Data


	This section integrates NPDES facility and permit information with additional information on the waterbodies that these facilities are located on or near. All of the data provided in this section comes from the EPA's Office of Water; see individual sections for more detail below. Designated Use information can come from the Water Quality Standards (WQS) database and/or the National Assessment Database (305(b)). Typically, the uses identified in WQS are the ones used in 305(b) when the water assessments are performed, but this is not guaranteed. Dates from WQS signify the date of the standards document. Water Quality Standards define the goals for a waterbody by designating its uses, setting criteria to protect those uses, and establishing provisions to protect water quality from pollutants. To get more information on Water Quality Standards, please see http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/about/. The National Assessment Database database summarizes information provided by the states in 2002 under Section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act. The National Water Quality Inventory Report to Congress (305(b) report) is the primary vehicle for informing Congress and the public about general water quality conditions in the United States. To get more information on the National Assessment Database, please see http://www.epa.gov/waters/305b/index.html.

Data Quality

For the Water Quality data to be available, the following must apply:

The NPDES id needs to be indexed to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Reach Addressing Database (RAD). The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a database that interconnects and uniquely identifies the millions of stream segments or reaches that comprise the Nations' surface water drainage system. The NHD provides a national framework for assigning reach addresses to water quality related entities. Reach addresses establish the locations of these entities relative to one another within the NHD surface water drainage network in a manner similar to street addresses. The assignment of reach addresses is accomplished through a process known as reach indexing.
Data must be available in an EPA Office of Water (OW) program database for the state.
Spatial data must exist for that program in that state.

The following classifications are used on the Water Quality Report and Water Quality Results table:

A classification of 'no npdes mapping' means:
- The NPDES id has not been indexed to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Reach Addressing Database (RAD).
A classification of 'no spatial overlap' means:
- The NPDES id has been indexed to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Reach Addressing Database (RAD) and data is available in an OW program database for the state. However, no program water entity is co-located with the given NPDES facility.
A classification of 'no state data' means:
- The NPDES id has been indexed to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Reach Addressing Database (RAD). For the particular state that the NPDES facility is located in, there is no available OW programmatic data for the referenced program (example - there is no 2002 305(b) assessed water data for North Carolina), or
- The NPDES id has been indexed to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Reach Addressing Database (RAD) and data is available in an OW program database for the state. However, no spatial data exists for that program in that state.

# CSO Outfalls


	A combined sewer system is a wastewater collection system owned by a municipality which conveys sanitary wastewater (domestic, commercial, and industrial) and stormwater through a single pipe system to a publicly-owned treatment works. A combined sewer overflow (CSO) refers to a discharge of untreated wastewater from a combined sewer system at a point prior to the headworks of the publicly-owned treatment works. (59 FR 18688) CSOs generally occur in response to wet weather events. Most combined sewer systems are designed to discharge excess flow directly to surface water bodies, such as streams, rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters. The source of the information provided on CSOs is the 2004 Report to Congress published by the EPA's Office of Water.

Is the facility located on water with an Aquatic Life and Wildlife National Designated Use?


	This National Designated Use includes all unlimited aquatic life-, wildlife-, and habitat protection-related state designated uses. It also includes state designated uses related to limited aquatic resources due to natural water quality conditions (e.g., intermittent, low, or high flow). The Aquatic Life and Wildlife National Designated Use includes protection and propagation (contributing to maintenance of a healthy balanced population) of fish, shellfish, wildlife, plants, etc. can include state designated uses like "Salmonid", "wetlands", "endangered species critical habitat". A "yes" or "no" will indicate whether the NPDES id triggered the Habitat flag. The database for which the flag was triggered is noted in parenthesis. WQS stands for "Water Quality Standards" database, and NAD stands for the "National Assessment Database."

Is the facility located on water with an Exceptional and Outstanding Significance National Designated Use?


	The National Designated Use of Exceptional & Outstanding Significance includes non-degradation i.e., Tier 3 (Outstanding Natural Resource Waters), and exceptional (Tier 2.5) anti-degradation waters. A "yes" or "no" will indicate whether the NPDES id triggered the Exceptional flag. The database for which the flag was triggered is noted in parenthesis. WQS stands for "Water Quality Standards" database, and NAD stands for "National Assessment Database."

Is the facility located on water with a Primary or Secondary Contact Recreation National Designated Use?


	This designation refers to primary or secondary contact recreation designated uses. Primary Contact Recreation includes protection for when the human health risks to be avoided are through the whole body (immersion), and incidental ingestion exposure pathways. Secondary Contact Recreation (e.g., boating, wading) includes protection for when the human health risks to be avoided are through the limited body contact and incidental ingestion exposure (e.g., splashes, and aerosol) pathways. A "yes" or "no" will indicate whether the NPDES is triggered the Recreational Use flag. The database for which the flag was triggered is noted in parenthesis. WQS stands for "Water Quality Standards" database, and NAD stands for "National Assessment Database."

Is the facility or outfall within 15 Miles Upstream of a Drinking Water Intake?


	These data are the results of a September 2006 analysis via the Drinking Water Mapping Application (DWMA), an EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) Intranet GIS application. The analysis used an Oracle Spatial convex hull technique to generate analytical source protection area polygons related to networks of National Hydrography Dataset-based drains. The analysis used 4QTR 2004 SDWIS/FED data and July 2006 PCS data.

Is the facility located on water with a Shellfish National Designated Use?


	The Shellfish Consumption National Designated Use includes human consumption of shellfish (principally molluscan) when the human health risk to be avoided is primarily microbial pathogens. It also includes wild and planted, and food produced in, and/or processed by open water aquaculture (without food and/or pharmaceutical additions), including shellfish relay waters. A "yes" or "no" will indicate whether the NPDES id triggered the Shell Fish Use Designation flag. The database for which the flag was triggered is noted in parenthesis. WQS stands for "Water Quality Standards" database, and NAD stands for "National Assessment Database."

Is the facility located on a beach that has had an advisory or closing within the last year?


	These data come from eBEACHES, a system of data collection, including hardware, software, and electronic connections that states use to submit beach advisory and closing data to EPA. As a BEACH Act Grant requirement, states must submit their annual data to EPA by January 31 of the following year, and after data validation procedures, eBEACHES is updated accordingly. For more information, please see: eBEACHES data user corner More information on the completeness of Beaches data is available at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/georef/status.htm#beach

Is the facility located on a water for which one of the state Designated Uses is not fully supported?


	These data come from the National Water Quality Inventory Report to Congress (305(b) report), which rates waters either as: "good", fully supporting all of their designated uses, "threatened" currently supporting all of their designated uses, but one or more of those uses may become impaired in the future (i.e., water quality may be exhibiting a deteriorating trend) if pollution control actions are not taken, or "impaired", and cannot support one or more of their designated uses. A "yes" or "no" will indicate whether the NPDES id triggered the flag in the National Assessment Database.

Is the facility discharging into a water that has been identified as impaired (category 4 or category 5)?

Under section 303(d) of the CWA, states, territories, and authorized tribes are required to develop lists of impaired waters. These are waters for which technology-based regulations and other required controls are not stringent enough to meet the water quality standards set by states. The law requires that states establish priority rankings for waters on the lists and develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), for these waters. A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still safely meet water quality standards. For more information about impaired waters or TMDLs, please visit EPA’s overview of impaired waters and Total Maximum Daily Loads Program web page. For detailed information on the categorization of impaired waters, see Section V of the 2006 Integrated Report Guidance.

5. Impaired - TMDL needed. Available information indicates that at least one designated use is not being supported and a TMDL is needed (also known as the 303(d) listed waters).
4. Impaired - TMDL not needed. Available information indicates that at least one designated use is not being supported, but a TMDL is not needed (see subcategories).

4a. TMDL completed. A TMDL has been completed, but impairment still exists.
4b. TMDL alternative. Impairment is being addressed by a method other than a TMDL (e.g., stream bank improvements).
4c. Non-pollutant causes. Cause of impairment is not a pollutant (e.g., habitat destruction).

Detailed information on the categorization of waters can be found in Section V of the 2006 Integrated Report Guidance.

Note that the locational data (latitude and longitude) are needed to index NPDES permits to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Reach Addressing Database (RAD). For some facilities, locational data are not available, so whether the facilities directly discharge into impaired waters cannot be determined.

For information on the completeness of 305b and 303d impairment data by state, see the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds' NHD Reach Indexing Status by State page.

Is the facility that discharges into a 303(d) listed impaired water a potential contributor to a cause of impairment?


	The expected PCS parameters based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code of the facility are compared against the master 303(d) listed water impairments to see if the expected PCS discharge might contribute to the 303(d) impairment. These expected parameters are identified in PCS's Typical Pollutant Concentration (TPC) tables and may be especially useful in analyzing minor PCS facilities for which the national PCS system may not contain any limit information. This analysis is made based on the facility's SIC code. As an example, if the listed water is identified as being impaired by nutrients and the NPDES facility discharges NITROGEN, then the NPDES facility may have contributed to this water impairment. A "yes" or "no" will indicate whether the NPDES id triggered the flag in the Impaired Waters Database.

Total # of "Yes" Responses Shown (0-9)


	This is a tally of the total number of "yes" indicators in the previous nine water quality columns, starting from the left with "Is the facility located on water with an Aquatic Life and Wildlife National Designated Use?" and ending with " Is the facility a potential contributor to impairment based on Typical Pollutant Criteria?". This can be used for facility/ permit ranking purposes.

Has the Clean Watershed Needs Survey identified the total federal needs amount for this facility?


	These data come from the 2004 Clean Watershed Needs Survey conducted by the EPA's Office of Water. For more information, please see: http://www.epa.gov/owm/mtb/cwns/index.htm.

Water Quality Report (WQR) Data Dictionary

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