Key sections of the report
- Executive summary
- List of impaired waters needing cleanup plans
- List of impaired waters not needing cleanup plans
- Delistings Submitted
- Fact sheets for impaired waters
- Full report table of contents
Related information
- Printable maps
- Search for impaired waters in a specific area
- Interactive mapping
- Summary presentation
Draft 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality
Assessment Integrated Report
The 2008 Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report is a summary of the water quality conditions in Virginia from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2006. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality develops and submits this report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency every even-numbered year.
The report satisfies the requirements of the U.S. Clean Water Act sections 305(b) and 303(d) and the Virginia Water Quality Monitoring, Information and Restoration Act. The goals of Virginia's water quality assessment program are to determine whether waters meet water quality standards, and to design and implement a plan to restore waters with impaired water quality.
Water quality standards designate uses for waters. There are six designated uses for surface waters:
- aquatic life
- fish consumption
- public water supplies (where applicable)
- shellfish consumption
- swimming
- wildlife
Additionally, several subcategories of aquatic life use have been adopted for the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. The standards define the water quality needed to support each of these uses. If a water body contains more contamination than allowed by water quality standards, it will not support one or more of its designated uses. Such waters have "impaired" water quality. In most cases, a cleanup plan (called a "total maximum daily load") must be developed and implemented to restore impaired waters.
DEQ released the report on June 16, 2008. The findings in this report will be presented via a simultaneous teleconference at all seven DEQ regional offices, and the DEQ central office, on June 24th, 7:00pm – 8:30pm. See listings at the bottom of this page for location information.
This report is made available for public comment through July 25, 2008. Comments or questions about the report can be submitted via first-class mail to: Darryl M. Glover, DEQ Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Manager, via e-mail attachment (in Microsoft Word or PDF) to dmglover@deq.virginia.gov, or to P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, Virginia 23218. Please include your name, (US mail) address, telephone number, and e-mail address so we can add you to our notification list for future assessments.
A combined response to comments will be prepared after the public comment period and will be available on this website.
Summary Presentation of the Draft 2008 Water Quality Assessment (PDF) - This is a copy of the presentation given at the public information meeting.
Copies of the draft report, associated maps, and summary presentation are all on a CD which can be ordered at no charge by sending an e-mail request.
Entire Draft 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report. This is a 16.8 MB PDF document. You may wish to right-click on the link and click "Save Target As..." to save the document to your computer. Or, you may scroll down to view and download the much smaller individual chapters.
All chapters of the report and the supplemental files are PDF documents. Please visit the website help page if you are unable to view these documents.
Table of Contents
i. Acknowledgements
ii-iii. List of Figures
iv-vi. List of Tables
vii-viii. Introduction
Part I Executive Summary
Part II Surface Water Monitoring and Assessment
- Chapter 2.1 Surface Water Monitoring Program
- Chapter 2.2 Assessment Methodology
- Chapter 2.3 Monitoring Strategy Revision Process and Timeline
- Chapter 2.4 Freshwater Probabilistic Monitoring
Part III Results of 2008 Water Quality Assessment
- Chapter 3.1 Water Quality Assessment Summary
- Chapter 3.2 Individual River Basin Assessment Summary
- Chapter 3.3 Integrated List of All Waters in Virginia
- Chapter 3.3a List of Category 5 Impaired Waters (303d List)
- Chapter 3.3b Supplemental List of Category 5 Waters Newly Impaired in 2008 (303d List)
- Chapter 3.3c List of Category 4A Impaired Waters
- Chapter 3.3d List of Category 4C Impaired Waters
- Chapter 3.4 Water Quality Based Limited Sources - Category 4B and 5E Waters
- Chapter 3.4a Category 4B and 5E Waters Approved for Delisting since 2006 Report
- Chapter 3.5 Other Waters Identified for Delisting since 2006 Report
Part IV Non-Point Source Assessment
Part V Ground Water Assessment
Part VI State Background Information and Water Quality Program Descriptions
- Chapter 6.1 General Background Summary Information
- Chapter 6.2 Water Pollution Control Programs
- Chapter 6.3 Cost/Benefit Analysis of Construction Assistance Program
- Chapter 6.4 Pollution Prevention Programs
- Chapter 6.5 Public Health/Aquatic Life Concerns
- Chapter 6.6 Coastal Resources Management Program Initiatives
- Chapter 6.7 Chesapeake Bay Program Assessment and Summary
- Chapter 6.8 Wetlands Program Initiatives
- Chapter 6.9 Regional Water Quality Initiatives
Part VII Appendices
Appendix A
- Fact Sheets for Category 5 Waters (all basins)
- Chesapeake Bay/Atlantic and Small Coastal Basin
- Chowan River and Dismal Swamp Basin
- James River Basin
- New River Basin
- Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers Basin
- Rappahannock River Basin
- Roanoke River Basin
- Tennessee and Big Sandy Rivers Basin
- York River Basin
Appendix B Clean Water Act References
Appendix C List of Significant Lakes
Appendix D Data Sets Considered for 2008 Assessment
Appendix E Current Status of TMDL Development in Virginia
Appendix F 2008 Monitoring Station List (all Stations and Key)
STATEWIDE, BASIN and CHESAPEAKE BAY MAPS - Electronic versions of the 303(d) Maps are available for download/viewing. Each map is a PDF between 1 and 7 MB formated to fit on an 11x17 page. You may wish to right-click and select "Save Target As..." to save the maps to your computer. For more detailed information on impaired waters identified on these maps, please use the Virginia DEQ Geographic Mapping System.
STATEWIDE MAPS:
- Statewide 303(d) Map
- Distribution of Impaired Waters
- Watershed Segments
- Waters Under VDH Fish Advisory
- Watersheds with Assessed Use(s) 2002-2008
- TMDL Completion Status
- DEQ Regional Offices (Under Revision - Not Available with Draft Report)
- Map Book Cover and Table of Contents (Under Revision - Not Available with Draft Report)
BASIN MAPS:
- Shenandoah River Basin
- Potomac River Basin
- Rappahannock Basin
- Upper James River Basin
- Middle James River Basin
- Lower James River Basin
- York River Basin
- Chesapeake Bay/Atlantic and Small Coastal Basin
- Chowan River and Dismal Swamp Basin
- Roanoke River Basin
- New River Basin
- Tennessee and Big Sandy Rivers Basin
CHESAPEAKE BAY MAPS:
- Summary of All Impairment Causes in Virginia's Bay Waters
- Benthic Index of Biological Integrity Assessment
- Open Water Dissolved Oxygen Criteria Assessment
- Deep Water and Deep Channel Assessment
- Shallow Water-Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Assessment
- James River Chlorophyll a Criteria Assessment
Hard copies of the FINAL version of these maps will be available for $17.15 to cover the cost of printing and binding. They can be ordered by downloading and printing the order form, filling it out and mailing it to DEQ at the address indicated on the form with a check payable to "Treasurer of Virginia". Please memo your check with "2008 IR map book".
Attention GIS users:
Virginia DEQ Geographic Mapping System - The impaired waters identified in this report can be viewed using DEQ's online GIS system
2008 Assessment Database GIS Application - Allows users to zoom to an area of interest and retrieve information on any waters assessed in this 305(b)/303(d) Report.
Please be advised that the GIS data layers used for the 2008 assessment will be made available via download, published on CD and as a feature map service once the final Integrated Report is released later this Fall.
The final 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Guidance Manual is also available for download:
Final 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Guidance Manual. This is a 1.6 MB PDF document.
June 24th Teleconference Public Information Meeting Locations
- Downtown Richmond:
DEQ Central Office, 629 East Main Street in Richmond. For directions please contact Harry Augustine, (804) 698-4037, hhaugustine@deq.virginia.gov.
- Harrisonburg:
DEQ Valley Regional Office, 4411 Early Road in Harrisonburg. For directions please contact James Shiflet, (540) 574-7828, jashiflet@deq.virginia.gov.
- Roanoke:
DEQ West Central Regional Office, 3019 Peters Creek Road in Roanoke. For directions please contact Mike McLeod, (540) 562-6721, dmmcleod@deq.virginia.gov.
- Virginia Beach:
DEQ Tidewater Regional Office, 5636 Southern Boulevard in Virginia Beach. For directions, please contact Steve Cioccia, (757) 518-2159, sacioccia@deq.virginia.gov.
- Lynchburg:
DEQ South Central Regional Office, 7705 Timberlake Road in Lynchburg. For directions, please contact Amanda Gray, (434) 582-6227, abgray@deq.virginia.gov.
- Richmond:
DEQ Piedmont Regional Office, 4949-A Cox Road in Glen Allen. For directions, please contact Jennifer Palmore, (804)527-5058, jvpalmore@deq.virginia.gov. (Please note that seating space is limited).
- Abingdon:
DEQ South West Regional Office, 355 Deadmore Street in Abingdon. For directions please contact Allen Newman, (276) 676-4804, ajnewman@deq.virginia.gov.
- Woodbridge:
DEQ Northern Va. Regional Office, 13901 Crown Court in Woodbridge. For directions please contact Bryant Thomas, (703) 583-3848, bhthomas@deq.virginia.gov.
Additional Information:
Many of the documents on this page are in Adobe® PDF format. Please visit DEQ's website help page to download Adobe Reader.
