Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 35 - Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry › Chapter 45 - Water Quality Standards Implementation Plan › Subchapter 1 - Water Quality Standards Implementation Plan › Section 35:45-1-1 - Section I - Statutory authority, definitions, standards, jurisdiction, beneficial uses and protocols

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
(a) Subsection B,
				27A O.S. Supp 1998, Section 1-1-202 (enacted through Senate Bill 549), mandates
				that each state environmental agency shall promulgate, by July 1, 2001, a Water
				Quality Standards Implementation Plan for its jurisdictional areas of
				environmental responsibility specifying how the agency utilizes and enforces
				the Oklahoma Water Quality Standards for surface water and groundwater. The
				Implementation Plan must be promulgated in compliance with the Administrative
				Procedures Act and pursuant to Section 1-1-202. After initial promulgation,
				each state environmental agency must review its plan at least every three years
				thereafter to determine whether revisions to the plan are necessary. All
				references to sections are to the original plan document, which is available
				from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.
(b) The Water Quality Standards
				Implementation Plan is to include eight elements for each jurisdictional area:
(1) Program Compliance with Antidegradation
				Requirements and Protection of Beneficial Uses - General description of the
				processes, procedures and methodologies utilized to ensure that programs within
				the agency's jurisdictional areas of environmental responsibility comply with
				anti-degradation standards and lead to maintenance of water quality where
				beneficial uses are supported, removal of threats to water quality where
				beneficial uses are in danger of not being supported, and restoration of water
				quality where beneficial uses are not being supported.
(2) Application of Use Support Assessment
				Protocols (USAP)-Procedures to be utilized in the application of use support
				assessment protocols (found at OAC 785:46, Subchapter 15) to make impairment
				determinations.
(3) Description of
				Programs Affecting Water Quality - Description of the surface water and/or
				groundwater quality-related components of pertinent programs within each
				jurisdictional area.
(4) Technical
				Information and Procedures - Technical information, databases, and procedures
				to be utilized by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture (ODA) in the
				WQSIP.
(5) Integration of WQSIP
				into ODA activities - Describe how the Water Quality Standards Implementation
				Plan is and will be integrated into the water quality management activities of
				the agency, including rules, program area policies and guidance, and
				standardized methods of conducting business.
(6) Compliance with Mandated Statewide Water
				Quality Requirements - Describe how ODA is or will be complying with mandated
				statewide requirements affecting water quality developed by other state
				environmental agencies, including, but not limited to, total maximum daily load
				(TMDL) development, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution prevention programs,
				Oklahoma Water Quality Standards (OWQS), OWQS implementation procedures, and
				the Continuing Planning Process (CPP) document.
(7) Public and Interagency Participation -
				Summary of written comments and testimony received relative to all public
				meetings held for the purpose of providing public participation relating to the
				WQSIP, and new rules related to the WQSIP.
(8) Evaluation of Effectiveness of Agency
				Activities - Describe methods and means to evaluate the effectiveness of
				activities conducted pursuant to the WQSIP to achieve Water Quality
				Standards.