(a) Each river authority and designated local government
that has entered into an agreement with the commission to perform
duties under this chapter shall:
(1) Organize and lead a basin-wide steering committee
to assist with the development of water quality objectives and priorities
for the basin and to fulfill responsibilities described in §220.5
of this title (relating Responsibilities of Steering Committees).
Membership of the committee will reflect a diversity of interests
in the basin and will include persons paying fees described under
Chapter 21 of this title (relating to Water Quality Fees), the Texas
State Soil and Water Conservation Board and other appropriate state
agencies (for example, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas
Water Development Board, Texas General Land Office, Texas Department
of Health, Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Railroad Commission,
and the Texas Department of Transportation), private citizens, representatives
from political subdivisions, and other persons with an interest in
water quality matters in the watershed or river basin.
(2) Develop and maintain a basin-wide water quality
monitoring program that eliminates duplicative monitoring, facilitates
the assessment process to identify problem areas and support long-term
trend analyses, and targets monitoring to support the wastewater discharge
permitting and standards process.
(A) A quality assurance project plan must be developed
and approved to support all data collection activities. Data collected
by subcontractors and others under this program must conform to the
approved quality assurance project plans.
(B) The water quality monitoring program shall address
collection of baseline water quality data to support trend analyses
and development of the statewide water quality inventory required
under federal Clean Water Act, §305(b).
(C) The water quality monitoring program shall include
site-specific data collection to support the wastewater discharge
permitting process for fee payers in the basin.
(D) The water quality monitoring program shall include
watershed specific data collection to address priority water quality
problem areas identified by river authority trends analyses or steering
committee input.
(3) Establish and maintain a watershed and river basin
water quality database and/or clearinghouse composed of quality-assured
data, river authority programs, wastewater discharge permit holders,
state and federal agencies, and other relevant data sources. This
data shall be submitted to the commission for inclusion in the State
of Texas Surface Water Quality Monitoring database and shall be made
available to any interested person.
(A) Each river authority and designated local government
shall establish and maintain the technology to aid in the electronic
dissemination of water quality data and information for their basin.
Water quality data for the basin shall be submitted to the commission
at a minimum of once every six months in an agreed format for inclusion
in the statewide water quality database.
(B) River authorities and designated local governments
shall participate in task force meetings to establish, review, and
update data management procedures to reflect changes in information
management technology.
(4) Identify water quality problems and known pollution
sources and set priorities for taking appropriate actions to eliminate
those problems and sources.
(A) Each river authority shall utilize the commission's
procedures for data evaluation and analyses to the maximum extent
possible. If alternative evaluation processes are necessary, the procedure
must be presented in writing to the commission for approval by the
executive director prior to its application.
(B) In order to assure inclusion in the development
of the statewide water quality inventory, the analytical procedures
shall be comparable to those used by the commission.
(C) Steering committees shall be provided the opportunity
to actively participate in the identification of priority problem
areas and the development of appropriate actions to address the problems
and pollutant sources. Steering committees shall have the opportunity
to determine the priority of maintaining or protecting watersheds
with existing good quality water.
(5) Develop a process for public participation that
includes the basin steering committee and that provides for meaningful
review and comments by private citizens and organizations in the local
watersheds.
(6) Recommend water quality management strategies for
correcting identified water quality problems and pollution sources.
(7) Develop work plans which include priorities of
the state and regional water quality management program. Upon agreement
between the commission, the river authority, and/or designated local
government, the provisions of the work plan become the scope of work
of the program contract or cooperative agreement.
(b) Each local government or other agency that collects
water quality data within the watershed shall cooperate with the river
authority or designated local government in developing the basin monitoring
plan and assessment by providing to the river authority all of the
information available to that organization about water quality within
its jurisdiction, including the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a
municipality. Data collected by local governments must be consistent
with an approved quality assurance plan to be included for wastewater
discharge permitting and standards decisions.
(c) Monitoring and assessment is a continuing duty
and shall be revised periodically with appropriate amendments and
updates to the quality assurance plans to reflect changes in procedures
and factors subject to the assessment.
|