Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia › Department 391 - RULES OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES › Chapter 391-3 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Subject 391-3-6 - WATER QUALITY CONTROL › Rule 391-3-6-.03 - Designated Uses and Water Quality Standards

Current through Rules
				and Regulations filed through June 27, 2024
(1)
Purpose
. The establishment
				of water quality standards.
(2)
Water Quality Enhancement
:
(a)
				The purposes and intent of the State in establishing Water Quality Standards
				are to provide enhancement of water quality and prevention of pollution; to
				protect the public health or welfare in accordance with the public interest for
				drinking water supplies, conservation of fish, wildlife and other beneficial
				aquatic life, and agricultural, industrial, recreational, and other reasonable
				and necessary uses and to maintain and improve the biological integrity of the
				waters of the State.
(b) The
				following paragraphs describe the three tiers of the State's waters.
(i) Tier 1 - Existing instream water uses and
				the level of water quality necessary to protect the existing uses shall be
				maintained and protected.
(ii) Tier
				2 - Where the quality of the waters exceed levels necessary to support
				propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in and on the
				water, that quality shall be maintained and protected unless the division
				finds, after full satisfaction of the intergovernmental coordination and public
				participation provisions of the division's continuing planning process, that
				allowing lower water quality is necessary to accommodate important economic or
				social development in the area in which the waters are located. In allowing
				such degradation or lower water quality, the division shall assure water
				quality adequate to protect existing uses fully. Further, the division shall
				assure that there shall be achieved the highest statutory and regulatory
				requirements for all new and existing point sources and all cost-effective and
				reasonable best management practices for nonpoint source control.
1. The division may identify waters for Tier
				2 protections on a parameter-by-parameter basis or on a water body-by-water
				body basis in accordance with
				40 CFR
				131.12(a)(2)(i).
2. Before allowing any lowering of high
				quality water the division shall find, after an analysis of alternatives, that
				such a lowering is necessary to accommodate important economic or social
				development in the area in which the waters are located. The analysis of
				alternatives shall evaluate a range of practicable alternatives that would
				prevent or lessen the degradation associated with the proposed activity. When
				the analysis of alternatives identifies one or more practicable alternatives,
				the division shall only find that a lowering is necessary if one such
				alternative is selected for implementation.
(iii) Tier 3 - Outstanding National Resource
				Waters (ONRW). This designation will be considered for an outstanding national
				resource waters, such as waters of National or State parks and wildlife refuges
				and waters of exceptional aesthetic, historic, recreational, or ecological
				significance. For waters designated as ONRW, existing water quality shall be
				maintained and protected. The following waters below are designated as ONRWs:
Conasauga River within the Cohutta Wilderness Area of the
				  Chattahoochee National Forest (headwaters to Forest Service Road 17).
1. No new point source discharges or
				increases in the discharge of pollutants above permitted level from existing
				point source discharges to ONRW shall be allowed.
2. Existing point source discharges to ONRW
				shall be allowed, provided they are treated or controlled in accordance with
				applicable laws and regulations.
3.
				New point source discharges or expansions of existing point source discharges
				to waters upstream of, or tributary to, ONRW shall be regulated in accordance
				with applicable laws and regulations, including compliance with water quality
				criteria for the designated use applicable to the particular water. However, no
				new point source discharge or expansion of an existing point source discharge
				to waters upstream of, or tributary to, ONRW shall be allowed if such discharge
				would not maintain and protect water quality within the ONRW.
4. Activities that result in short-term,
				temporary, and limited changes to water quality may be allowed if authorized by
				the Division and the water quality is returned or restored to conditions equal
				to or better than those existing prior to the activities.
(c) In applying these policies and
				requirements, the Division will recognize and protect the interest of the
				Federal Government in interstate and intrastate (including coastal and
				estuarine) waters. Toward this end the Division will consult and cooperate with
				the Environmental Protection Agency on all matters affecting the Federal
				interest.
(d) In those cases where
				potential water quality impairment associated with a thermal discharge is
				involved, the division's actions shall be consistent with Section 316 of the
				Federal Clean Water Act.
(e)
				Variance
.
Variances are a temporary modification to the designated
				use and associated criteria. Variances may be written for a specific geographic
				area, pollutant, or source. The State may issue variances that can provide
				relief to a permittee while they upgrade their facility to meet the standard.
				Variances are based on a use attainability demonstration, which requires a
				scientific assessment of factors affecting the attainment of a standard.
				Variances target achievement of the highest attainable water quality standard,
				must be reviewed every three years, and do not allow for a reduction in
				treatment efforts. Before a variance to a water quality standard is applied to
				a permitted discharger or to a waterbody, it must be demonstrated that one of
				the following factors has been satisfied:
(i)
				Naturally occurring pollutant concentrations prevent the attainment of the use;
				or
(ii) Natural, ephemeral,
				intermittent or low flow conditions or water levels prevent the attainment of
				the use, unless these conditions may be compensated for by the discharge of
				sufficient volume of effluent discharges without violating Georgia's water
				conservation requirements to enable uses to be met; or
(iii) Human caused conditions or sources of
				pollution prevent the attainment of the use and cannot be remedied or would
				cause more environmental damage to correct than to leave in place, or
(iv) Dams, diversions or other types of
				hydrologic modifications preclude the attainment of the use, and it is not
				feasible to restore the water body to its original condition or to operate such
				modification in a way that would result in the attainment of the use;
				or
(v) Physical conditions related
				to the natural features of the water body such as the lack of a proper
				substrate, cover, flow, depth, pools, riffles, and the like, unrelated to water
				quality, preclude attainment of aquatic life protection uses; or
(vi) Controls more stringent than those
				required by sections 301(b) and 306 of the Clean Water Act would result in
				substantial and widespread economic and social impact.
(f) Removal of a Designated Use
.
The State may remove a designated use which is not an existing use, as defined
				in 40 CFR
				131.3, or establish sub-categories of a use
				if the State can demonstrate that attaining the designated use is not feasible.
				This is done through a use attainability analysis. The use attainability
				analysis is a scientific assessment of factors affecting the attainment of a
				use and may include physical, chemical, biological and/or economic factors. A
				detailed analysis is required demonstrating that certain conditions are met
				indicating that the designated use cannot be met and should be removed. The use
				attainability analysis should be conducted in accordance with the US EPA
				Technical Support Manual:
Waterbody Surveys and Assessments for
				Conducting Use Attainability Analyses
and /or any State guidance
				documents. The factors that can be used are as follows:
(i) Naturally occurring pollutant
				concentrations prevent the attainment of the use; or
(ii) Natural, ephemeral, intermittent or low
				flow conditions or water levels prevent the attainment of the use, unless these
				conditions may be compensated for by the discharge of sufficient volume of
				effluent discharges without violating Georgia's water conservation requirements
				to enable uses to be met; or
(iii)
				Human caused conditions or sources of pollution prevent the attainment of the
				use and cannot be remedied or would cause more environmental damage to correct
				than to leave in place, or
(iv)
				Dams, diversions or other types of hydrologic modifications preclude the
				attainment of the use, and it is not feasible to restore the water body to its
				original condition or to operate such modification in a way that would result
				in the attainment of the use; or
(v) Physical conditions related to the
				natural features of the water body such as the lack of a proper substrate,
				cover, flow, depth, pools, riffles, and the like, unrelated to water quality,
				preclude attainment of aquatic life protection uses; or
(vi) Controls more stringent than those
				required by sections 301(b) and 306 of the Clean Water Act would result in
				substantial and widespread economic and social impact.
(g) Schedules of Compliance. The division may
				allow the use of schedules of compliance for water quality based effluent
				limits in NPDES permits in accordance with
				40 CFR
				131.15. Such schedules of compliance shall be
				implemented in accordance with
				391-3-6-.06(10).