VARIATION IN WATER QUALITY STANDARDS IN THE SOUTHEAST AND SOUTH CENTRAL UNITED STATES

The Environmental Protection Agency sets minimum water quality standards of surface waters. The individual states set their own standards and vary standards with their self-determined stream classification system, allowing for considerable variation in water quality parameters from state to state. The states in the southern United States share some unique considerations when determining how to best set their surface water quality standards. The long hot summers coupled with lower stream flow and continued discharge of treated sewage cause lowered dissolved oxygen levels to be the leading cause of fish kills in the south. The fifteen Southeast and South Central GSA states were first ranked based on the stringency of nine of their water quality standards (fecal coliform bacteria, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, mercury, DDT, turbidity, arsenic, and PCB’s). Florida came in first, with the most stringent water quality standards, while Kentucky placed fifteenth, with the least rigorous water quality standards. In order to consider how waters were faring in each state, a comparison was then made of whether or not the streams in the fifteen states were fully supporting, partially supporting, or not supporting their designated usages. States require different water quality standards for waters with different uses (i.e. drinking water quality standards are more stringent than recreational water quality standards). States were ranked based on what percentage of their streams fully supported its’ designated usage. North Carolina ranked first, with 93.3% of its streams fully supporting their designated usages. Kansas came in fifteenth, with only 24.3% of its streams classified as fully supporting. Further research will deal with the problem of some states, such as Alabama, that classify numerous streams with a classification such as agricultural, which requires less stringent water quality standards. Some of the most degraded streams in Alabama are classified as agricultural, requiring that dissolved oxygen not fall below 3.0 mg/L, whereas in neighboring Georgia, all streams are required to maintain an average dissolved oxygen of 5.0 mg/L with a one-time measurement of 4.0 mg/L. Even with this low standard, Alabama still listed six streams as not supporting their agricultural use due to dissolved oxygen infractions.