SOUTH DAKOTA SURFACE WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND MONITORING

The basis for South Dakota’s Surface Water Quality Standards originated in 1967 when the Water Quality Standards for Surface Waters Of South Dakota were adopted by the South Dakota Committee on Water Pollution. These standards were developed by Floyd L. Matthews for the state in response to the 1965 Federal Water Quality Act.

While there have been modifications to these original standards over the years, the basics of assigning designated beneficial uses and adopting criteria to protect those uses are familiar to anyone working with the present surface water quality standards. Issued by the Board of Water Management, the Surface Water Quality Standards are reviewed every three years as required by the federal Clean Water Act.

The Surface Water Quality Program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is responsible for administering the Surface Water Quality Standards. The Program’s responsibilities also include the permitting and monitoring of municipal and industrial discharges, establishing surface water quality criteria, and monitoring the surface waters of the state. Another program in the DENR, the Watershed Protection Program, also conducts surface water monitoring.

DENR conducts ambient water quality monitoring of streams and lakes, monitoring to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads, Use Attainability Analyses, Fish Flesh Analyses, and monitoring for specific projects. These special projects include pre-construction monitoring for the proposed Hyperion oil refinery and proposed Powertech uranium mining project and monitoring to determine impacts from past uranium mining.