Applications of Biological Assessment and Biocriteria Programs*

Section 305(b)/ Reporting

• Improving data for beneficial use assessment.

• Improving water quality reporting.

• Identifying waters that are not achieving their aquatic life use support.

• Defining an understandable endpoint in terms of "biological health" or "biological integrity" of waterbodies."

National Estuaries Program

• Assessing status of biological components of aquatic systems.

• Develop monitoring objectives and performance criteria.

• Establish testable hypothesis and select statistical methods.

• Assessing  biological trends.

• Select analytical methods & alternative sampling designs.

• Evaluate expected monitoring study performance.

• Implement monitoring study & data analysis.

• Identifying waterbodies that are not attaining designated aquatic life use.

• Defining  biological integrity based on a reference condition.

• Identify impairments.

Section 319/Nonpoint Source Program

• Evaluating nonpoint source impacts and sources.

• Measuring site-specific ecosystem response to remediation or mitigation activities.

• Assessing biological resource trends within watersheds.

• Determining effectiveness of nonpoint source controls.

Watershed Protection Approach

• Assessing biological resource trends within watersheds.

• Setting goals for watershed and regional planning.

TMDLs

• Identifying biological assemblage and habitat impairments that indicate nonattainment of water quality standards.

• Priority ranking waterbodies.

• Documenting ecological/water quality response as a result of TMDL implementation.

• Identifying water quality-limited waters that require TMDLs.

• Establishing endpoints for TMDL development, i.e., measuring success.

NPDES Permitting

• Measuring improvement or lack of improvement of mitigation efforts.

• Developing protocols that demonstrate relationship of biological metrics to effluent characteristics.

• Performing aquatic life use compliance monitoring.

• Helping to verify that NPDES permit limits are resulting in achievement of state water quality standard.

State Monitoring Programs

• Improving water quality reporting.

• Documenting improvement or lack of improvement of mitigation efforts including  clean-up efforts, TMDL application, NPDES efforts, nonpoint source pollution controls, etc.

• Problem identification and trend assessment.

• Providing benchmark for measuring effectiveness of controls and performing watershed/ regional planning.

Risk Assessment

• Providing data needed to estimate ecological risk to assessment endpoints.

• Developing  an assessment or measurement endpoint.

Water Quality Criteria and Standards

• Developing data bases for  phytoplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish plants, and other assemblages.

• Developing indices that assess biota compared to reference.

• Providing benchmark for identifying waterbodies that are not attaining aquatic life use support.

• Permitting refining aquatic life use classifications.

• Allowing development of  site-specific biological standards.

Section 301(h)/ Waiver Program

• Meeting the requirement for dischargers conducting extensive biological monitoring programs to detect detrimental effects on biological communities.

• Providing a threshold against which to measure detrimental effects on biological communities.

Section 403(c)/Ocean Discharge Program

• Meeting the requirement for certain marine dischargers to provide an assessment of discharge impact on biological community in discharge area as well as surrounding communities.

• Providing a threshold against which to measure discharger impacts on biological communities.

Section 304(a)/ Criteria Methodology

• Provides information on the effects of pollutants on the biological community.

• Providing a benchmark for measuring the effects of pollutants on the biological community.