Water Quality Standards Regulation (Renewal)

The Water Quality Standards (WQS) regulation establishes the framework for states and authorized tribes to adopt WQS for waters of the United States, and for the EPA to review and approve or disapprove the WQS. For the purposes of this ICR, the WQS regulation consists of 40 CFR part 131 (Water Quality Standards), and portions of part 132 (Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System) that are related to WQS. This ICR is for information collections needed to implement the WQS regulation, required to obtain or retain benefits (e.g., relaxed regulatory requirements) under the WQS regulation, and to collect voluntary program information useful in administering WQS programs effectively and efficiently. This ICR renews the WQS Regulation ICR, OMB control no. 2040–0049, and consolidates the burden and costs associated with activities previously reported in two related ICRs: the WQS Regulatory Revisions ICR, OMB control no. 2040–0286; and the Revised Interpretation of Clean Water Act Tribal Provision ICR, OMB control no. 2040–0289. This ICR renewal and consolidation describes the estimated information collection burden for states, authorized tribes, tribes seeking authorization, and certain Great Lakes dischargers to: adopt, review, and revise WQS; comply with certain specific requirements of the regulation; submit tribal applications to be treated in a similar manner as a state (TAS); and request certain EPA dispute resolution assistance. This ICR also covers responses to periodic requests for voluntary WQS program information from, or voluntary participation in workgroups by, state and tribes to further cooperative federalism. The effect of this ICR renewal and consolidation is a reduction of the number of WQS-related ICRs from three to one. Upon approval, the overall estimated burden associated with this ICR is 505,387 hours, a decrease of 235,640 hours (31.8 percent) from the combined OMB-approved burdens of all three stand-alone ICRs.

The latest form for Water Quality Standards Regulation (Renewal) expires 2021-12-31 and can be found here.

WQS Base Program; State and Tribes

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Environmental Management - Pollution Prevention and Control