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Uses of Data
Biocriteria Links
Assess Water Quality
Biological assessment data can be used in water quality reports to provide an understandable water quality endpoint of relevance to society: the biological integrity of waterbodies.
Section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act establishes a process for reporting information about the quality of the Nation's water resources. EPA's National Water Quality Inventory Report, often referred to as the "305(b) report," describes the extent to which streams, lakes, and estuaries support their designated uses. This summarizes water quality data submitted to EPA by the states and identifies the pollutants and stressors causing impairment of designated uses. It also includes information on the sources of water quality stressors (e.g. wastewater treatment plants or mines) as well as ground water programs and impacts. States, the District of Columbia, territories, some tribes, and certain River Basin Commissions have developed programs to monitor surface and ground waters and to report the current status of water quality biennially (changed recently to once every 5 years) to EPA. The National Water Quality Inventory Report is submitted to Congress every two years along with the raw data reported to EPA by the states.
Biological assessments provide data that augment several of the ยง305(b) reporting requirements. In particular, the following assessment activities and reporting requirements can be enhanced through the use of the biological assessment data:
- Determine the status of the water resource. (Are the designated aquatic uses being met?)
- Evaluate the causes of degraded water resources and the relative contributions of pollution sources
- Report on the activities underway to assess and restore water source integrity
- Determine the effectiveness of control and mitigation programs
- Measure the success of watershed management plans.
Bioassessments provide direct measures of attainment of a state's designated aquatic life uses. A tiered biologically based classification approach for aquatic life use will enable greater specificity and improved accuracy in both setting and assessing attainment of state management goals aquatic life use support (ALUS).
Identify Impaired Waters
Biological assessment data provide direct measurements of the water quality condition of water bodies, while biological criteria provide the evaluation goal or benchmark. This is a distinct advantage of biological assessment data over chemistry and toxicity monitoring data for evaluating water quality conditions.
Biological criteria provide an evaluation benchmark for the waterbody by describing (in narrative or numeric biocriteria) the expected biological characteristics of the waterbody (Biological Criteria: National Program Guidance for Surface Waters, 1990 (EPA-440/5-90-004 )). The number and intensity of all stressors within an ecosystem will be evidenced by a change in the structure and function of the biotic community. The interactions among chemical, physical and biological stressors, and their cumulative impacts, emphasize the need to directly assess the aquatic biota as indicators of actual water resource conditions. This cannot be accomplished solely with chemical and whole effluent toxicity monitoring.