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Alaska Water Quality Standards

The Water Quality Standards (WQS) program in Alaska is managed by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC). Alaska's WQS may be found on ADEC's web site .

Alaska's WQS are not effective for Clean Water Act (CWA) purposes unless EPA has approved them. Please contact ADEC or EPA if you have any questions about whether any portion of Alaska's WQS is effective for CWA purposes.

Contacts

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation		U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10
410 Willoughby Ave., Ste 303 P.O. Box 111800 Juneau, AK 99811-1800 Fax (907) 465-5274 Jim Powell, Jim.Powell@alaska.gov (907) 465-5185		1200 Sixth Ave Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98101 Fax (206) 553-0165 Lisa McGuire, mcguire.lisa@epa.gov (206) 553-0226

Alaska, from time to time, revises its WQS and submits the revised WQS to EPA for EPA's review and approval under the CWA. The following table lists changes to Alaska WQS that are currently under EPA review, are expected to be submitted to EPA for review in the near future, or were recently reviewed by EPA. The table contains selected documents associated with EPA's review.

The purpose of this table is to support EPA's government-to-government consultation with Federally-recognized Alaska Tribes by providing an easily accessible Internet site for participants to access certain documents associated with consultations. EPA attempts to provide timely and updated information and material in this table. However, the documents on this site may not be final or official versions of documents. Contact EPA if you have any questions (see contact information above).

Recent Changes to Alaska Water Quality Standards Reviewed or Under Review by EPA Region 10 (Selected documents associated with review)
You will need Adobe Reader to view the files in this table. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

	State public notice documents (See Note 2)	State submittal of revised WQS	Government-to-Government Consultation	ESA and EFH consultation	Final action
2003 WQS revisions Partial Approval 2004 (See Note 1)					● EPA's Partial Approval Letter (4pp, 23K) ● EPA's List of Approved Revisions (1pp, 10K)
DO/analytical methods Approval 2006	● Public notice -FAQs (PDF) (1pp, 19K) ● Public notice - regulation (PDF) (7pp, 37K)	● Submittal package (PDF) (23pp, 1.8M)	● Consultation invitation letter (PDF) (3pp, 27K)	● “No effect” memo (PDF) (5pp, 43K)	● Methods approval letter (PDF) (4pp, 54K) ● DO approval letter (PDF) (6pp, 113K)
Mixing zones PROPOSED 2005; ADOPTED 2006; SUBMITTED 2006; UNDER REVIEW	● Public notice - letter (PDF) (4pp, 37K) ● Public notice -regulation (PDF) (5pp, 37K) ● Public notice -guidance (PDF) (4pp, 37K) ● Public notice -old-new comparison (PDF) (2pp, 37K)	● Submittal package (PDF) (41pp, 2M) ● Submittal package - addendum (PDF) (2pp, 23K) ● July 1, 2008 DNR amendment	● Consultation invitation letter (PDF) (3pp, 165K) ● Feb 06 info exchange cc agenda (PDF) (1pp, 13K) ● Feb 06 info exchange cc notes (PDF) (18pp, 111K) ● Ekwok July 06 presentation (PDF) (19pp, 110K) ● Ekwok July 06 follow-up (PDF) (6pp, 212K) ● ATCEM 10-06 update (PDF) (3pp, 38K) ● Update note 1-23-07 (PDF) (2pp, 40K) ● Update note 10-19-07 (PDF) (1pp, 55K) ● Update note 1-18-08 (PDF) (1pp, 47K) ● Update note 4-4-08 (PDF) (1pp, 56K) ● Update note 5-20-08 (5pp, 209K)
Residues PROPOSED 2005; ADOPTED 2006; SUBMITTED 2008	● Public notice - factsheet (PDF) (2pp, 29) ● Public notice - regulation (PDF) (6pp, 57K) ● Public notice - guidance (PDF) (5pp, 457K)	● Submittal cover letter (2pp, 131K) ● Adopted regulation (11pp, 441K) ● Implementation guidance (31pp, 196K) ● DOL certification (9pp, 265K) ● DEC response to comments (5pp, 33K) ● DEC fact sheet (2pp, 38K)	● Consultation invitation letter (PDF) (2pp, 304K)
Natural conditions PROPOSED 2006; ADOPTED 2006	● Public notice – letter ● Public notice - guidance		● Consultation invitation letter (PDF) (2pp, 58K)

Note 1: On February 27, 2004, EPA partially approved Alaska Water Quality Standard (WQS) revisions. EPA took no action on the acute and chronic freshwater aquatic life criteria for selenium and mercury or on the removal of the fluoride and odor secondary drinking water standards. EPA needs to conduct additional work to complete its review. Therefore, the new aquatic life criteria for mercury and selenium will not be in effect for CWA purposes until a decision is made by EPA about whether they can be approved. In the interim, the previously approved aquatic life criteria for mercury (2.4 ug/l acute and 0.012 ug/l chronic, both as total recoverable) and selenium (20 ug/l acute and 5 ug/l chronic, both as total recoverable) will remain the applicable CWA standards and will be retained in the CWA WQS docket until EPA acts on this revision (65 FR 24643). The secondary drinking water standards for fluoride (2.0 mg/l) and odor (3 threshold odor number) will remain in effect for CWA purposes.

Note 2: Any questions regarding State public notice documents should be directed to the State contact (see contact information above)

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URL: http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/WATER.NSF/Water+Quality+Standards/AK+WQS