Healthy Waters in the Mid-Atlantic
- Overview
- High Water Marks - Meeting our Mission
- Our Partners
- Current News and Notices
Healthy Waters – it’s more than just a goal for the Water Protection Division in EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region. It’s a means for achieving success.
The Healthy Waters strategy combines traditional tools with new ideas and collaborative approaches to help the division tackle the next generation of water protection issues.
The division manages and implements programs under the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, working with government, non-profit, citizen and private sector partners to protect drinking water sources and improve the health of the region’s estuaries, rivers, streams and lakes. The division also enforces the laws governing water resources, either directly or in partnership with the states.
Visit our High Water Marks to learn some of the ways the Water Protection Division is meeting its mission.
The Anacostia Trash TMDL - the nation's first interstate trash TMDL - was developed to restore water quality by capturing or removing more than 600 tons of trash from the Anacostia watershed each year. The TMDL provided the impetus to implementation plans and permit requirements in Maryland and D.C. as well as new plastic bag restrictions. Read more information about the Mid-Atlantic's TMDL program.
A banner year in enforcement in 2010 included the largest penalty for an Underground Injection Control case (CNX) and several nationally significant case conclusions in the Mid-Atlantic's NPDES Enforcement Program: Williamsport Sanitary Authority, JBS Souderton, Hovanian, Arch Coal and Consol, resulting in over $12.8 million in penalties, over 190 million pounds of pollutant reductions, and the investment of over $210 million in pollution control equipment.
Our Grants "Center of Excellence" promoted best practices and shared information among project officers, sponsored quarterly Project Officer forums that drew participants from across the Region, established new measures of environmental benefits from grants, and created a new escalation process to fast-track stalled projects that was applauded by the Office of the Inspector General as a national model and which greatly increased the pace of granting awards.
Read more about how EPA and the States are partnering to improve the Region's drinking water and wastewater systems.
Courtesy of USDA
Visit www.epa.gov/chesapeakebaytmdl for more information about what is being done to help clean up the Bay.
was launched with two major events in Maryland and is incorporating a variety of sustainable design techniques in local communities in the Bay region in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Maryland Department of the Environment.The Healthy Waters Blog - the first external blog of any EPA region - was launched to offer an interactive avenue for the public to learn about and provide perspective on key water protection issues. The blog has enjoyed a steady growth in readership and is included as one of EPA's Open Government Flagship Initiatives.
Water Protection Division Organizational Chart
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Working with partners in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Water Protection Division is responsible for managing and implementing the laws that protect, preserve, and enhance water resources. The Division administers programs authorized by the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), laws written by Congress. Along with the administration of programs, the division works with the Mid-Atlantic States, local organizations, and interstate basin commissions, overseeing the delegation of programs and state implementation of delegated programs to achieve environmental and public health goals and standards.
These links leave EPA.gov to visit our partner sites for more information. State Partner Agencies |
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Protection Division's
The beach at Ocean City, Maryland. Credit: NOAA
Beach News
- EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional office oversees beach conditions along the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The Great Lakes National Program Office of EPA oversees water quality in the Great Lakes, although the Mid-Atlantic Regional office oversees beach conditions along Lake Erie in Pennsylvania.
- State and local governments are generally responsible for testing beach water and telling the public when conditions are unsafe for swimming. In the past, local programs varied widely. The BEACH Act, enacted in 2000, is helping to standardize programs in line with the National Beach Guidance and Performance Criteria for Recreational Waters. EPA is providing grants to eligible states to help them improve their programs. Because the BEACH Act includes the Great Lakes in its definition of "recreational" beaches, Pennsylvania receives funding, in addition to Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, in the Mid-Atlantic region.
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National Information
Help keep prescription drugs out of the environment
Dispose of prescription drugs properly and keep them out of our waterways. Don't flush them down the toilet.