Final 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality
Assessment Integrated Report

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released the Final 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report (Integrated Report) on December 22, 2008. The 2008 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 establish a schedule to restore waters with impaired water quality.

Water quality standards designate uses for waters. There are six designated uses for surface waters:

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.

The draft Integrated Report was released on June 16 and made available for public comment through July 25, 2008. Comments were received from the public and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In response to comments, the report was revised and resubmitted to EPA on October 31, 2008 and approved on December 18, 2008. The Public Comments and Response (PDF) document contains responses to comments received on the draft report.

The Summary Presentation of the Final 2008 Water Quality Assessment (PDF) contains statistics revised since it was given at the statewide public information teleconference in June.

Copies of the final report, public comments and responses, revised summary presentation, GIS data and associated maps are all on a CD which can be ordered at no charge by sending an e-mail request.

The entire Final 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report is a 15.9 MB bookmarked 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.

Document Cover

Inside Cover

Table of Contents

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

Part III Results of 2008 Water Quality Assessment

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 MB 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: (some are new)

• Map Book Cover and Table of Contents
• DEQ Regional Offices (Revised on November 9, 2008 due to merger of the West Central and South Central offices)
• Virginia's 6th Order Watersheds
• Assessment Regions per 6th Order Watershed
• Watersheds with Assessed Use(s) 2002-2008
• Virginia's Section 303(d) Waters
• Distribution of Impaired Waters
• TMDL Completion Status
• Waters Under VDH Fish Advisory
• Bacteria Impairments
• Dissolved Oxygen Impairments
• Benthic Impairments
• pH Impairments

BASIN MAPS:

• Shenandoah River Basin
• Potomac River Basin
• Rappahannock Basin
• York River Basin
• Upper James River Basin
• Middle James River Basin
• Lower James 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
• Shallow Water-Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Assessment
• Open Water Dissolved Oxygen Criteria Assessment
• Deep Water and Deep Channel D.O. Assessment
• Benthic Index of Biological Integrity Assessment
• James River Chlorophyll a Criteria Assessment

Attention GIS users:

The GIS data used in the production of the Integrated Report is available for download (12.3 MB zip archive). Please note that you must have special GIS software to view this data. This data is also available on the final Integrated Report CD and as a feature map service. For more information, please contact Cleo Stevens.

Interactive Mapping

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.

The Final 2008 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Guidance Manual is also available for download.  This is a 1.6 MB PDF document.