Ohio EPA, Division of Surface Water
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Columbus, OH s43215
614-644-2001

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 18-Nov-2008 10:40:34 EST

Draft Rules

Note: the documents on this page are in PDF format which requires the Adobe Acrobat™ reader. The reader can be downloaded at no cost from Adobe.

Water Quality Standards Use Designations - OAC 3745-1

Comment deadline - December 23, 2008
 A fact sheet and the draft rules are available below.  Notice has been sent out for interested party review.  After considering comments and making changes, if necessary, to the rules, a public hearing and another public comment period will be scheduled in early 2009.

Important Notice: This rulemaking revises, or assigns for the first time, beneficial use designations for selected water bodies in the State. These changes are not affected by the changes in the four interrelated rule packages (water quality standards, 401 water quality certification, antidegradation, and stream mitigation) that are or will soon be available for comment. Information on those four rule packages is available at http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dsw/rules/draft_wqs_aug08.html. This is the Agency's annual use designation rulemaking to incorporate the results of recent biological surveys. The changes in this rule package are not dependent on any of the changes in the other four rule packages. Therefore, this rulemaking is proceeding independently from those other four rule packages.

Background

At this time the Agency is considering possible revisions to five water quality standards rules containing designated uses of specific water bodies in the following drainage basins: Scioto River, Maumee River, Southwest Ohio tributaries, Little Miami River, and Mahoning River.

As part of our mission to protect Ohio's water quality, the Ohio EPA Division of Surface Water conducts water quality and biological surveys of Ohio's rivers and streams. One outcome of this work is an assessment of the beneficial uses assigned to specific water bodies in the State's water quality standards rules. The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires all states to conduct such assessments and to designate waters for beneficial uses that support the CWA "fishable and swimmable" goals wherever attainable. All waters are presumed to be capable of supporting goal uses unless the state provides a use attainability analysis (UAA) explaining the reasons why the goals of protecting aquatic life and recreation cannot be attained in the water.

Available documents

Draft rules
Text to be deleted from the rules is struck out; new text is underlined. 

  • 3745-1-09 Scioto river drainage basin (PDF 356K)
  • 3745-1-11 Maumee river drainage basin (PDF 159K)
  • 3745-1-17 Southwest Ohio tributaries drainage basin (PDF 149K)
  • 3745-1-18 Little Miami river drainage basin (PDF 182K)
  • 3745-1-25 Mahoning river drainage basin (PDF 173K)

See all currently effective rules in Chapter 3745-1 here.

For additional information or to submit comments

Please submit any comments you have on these draft rules in one of the following manners.

   By e-mail:  Chris.Skalski@epa.state.oh.us  
   By mail:     Chris Skalski 
                    Ohio EPA
                    Division of Surface Water
                    Lazarus Government Center
                    P.O. Box 1049
                    Columbus, Ohio 43216-1049		  
   By fax:       (614) 644-2745  

If you need further information about this rulemaking, please contact Chris Skalski at (614) 644-2144.

Back to Draft and Proposed Rules page.