What is Being Done
On
January 26, 1993, the Ohio EPA proposed a revision to the water quality
standard. The
change is designated to assign special
usage for each water way, set criteria to protect the uses, and an
antidegrading policy to protect
the quality of the water. Two hearings of the new proposed rules
were held, and all interest groups
were invited to attend. The rules affect 129 streams.
Categories of usage are water supply,
recreation, and aquatic life habitats. The rivers are put into three
major groups. In
the Aquatic life habitat, there are smaller groups like warm water, limited
warm
water, seasonal salmonid, cold water
and limited resource water. These all define what habitat is fit
in
what water quality. The other
large group, besides water supply is Recreation. In recreation, the
small
groups are bathing
water, primary contact, secondary contact.
These determine the water quality for the
human usage. The antidegration
policy states that existing instream water, water where quality is better
than qualification
standards, and state resource water are to be protected.
The Cuyahoga River Remedial Action Plan takes the watershed approach, recommendations
cover
Land use, Management, Development,
Storm water management, Education,
Pollution prevention,
Recreation, Public Access, Wild
life habitats, and Human health. A watershed is an area that is
drained into a body
of water. Cuyahoga Watershed is 813 square miles, 20% of Ohio’s population
uses
this water. The designated area
of concern is from Cleveland to Akron.