Why Care About the Health of our Waters?

More about rivers and streams:

Healthy water, clean water, looks appealing. But healthy water is necessary for more than just aesthetics and recreation. As people, we need healthy water for:

Drinking
Fishing (and catching fish that are healthy to eat)
Swimming
Agriculture
Industrial and community uses
Aesthetic enjoyment

Though different varieties of animals and plants need different types of water environments, they all need healthy water for:

Food sources
Hiding places from predators
Sufficient oxygen
Spawning

Learn more about all of the uses of water from the U.S. Geological Survey.

One approach to evaluating the health of rivers, streams, and lakes is to look at how well water meets certain uses. This process has several key steps:

Establish standards for basic types of water use
Consider which basic use a particular body of water can reasonably serve; that use is called its designated use
Assess the extent to which that water is healthy enough to help fill that use
Strive to improve water quality so that each river, stream, or lake can fulfill its designated use

Designated Uses and Water Quality Standards

To ensure that waters will be clean enough for all of the uses that people enjoy and require, all waters are "designated" for certain uses and are provided protection under state laws. These "designated uses" are part of each states water quality standards and ensure that these waters will be healthy, and healthful, for the public.

Some beneficial "use" categories in state Water Quality Standards (WQS - link to EPA's Office of Water) include:

aquatic life (ecological uses)
water supply (public, agriculture, industry)
recreational uses (swimming, boating, etc.)
nuisance prevention

WQS to protect the non-aquatic life uses are primarily based on chemical indicators and criteria. Human health is protected through various routes of exposure, which includes direct body contact, and consumption based exposures (i.e., contaminated edible portions of fish and wildlife). While it is possible to base protective measures on these criteria, it is much more difficult to practically measure true human health responses in the ambient environment.

Learn more about aquatic life designated uses and biological criteria from EPA's Office of Water.

Biological Indicators | Aquatic Biodiversity | Statistical Primer

Why Care About the Health of our Waters?

More about rivers and streams:

Designated Uses and Water Quality Standards

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