Skip to main content
Loading…
Article III. Water Quality Objectives
This article is included in your selections.
This section is included in your selections.

(a) The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act defines “water quality objectives” as the allowable “limits or levels of water quality constituents or characteristics which are established for the reasonable protection of beneficial uses of water or the prevention of nuisance within a specific area.” This WQCP is consistent with California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. However, the Tribe asserts its jurisdiction within the YIR and that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act or CWA) is the applicable law on the YIR. Therefore, the Tribe has authority to set water quality objectives for Reservation waters. Thus, the standards provided herein are to restore, maintain and protect the chemical, physical, biological, and cultural integrity of the surface waters of the YIR; to promote the health, social welfare, and economic wellbeing of the YIR, its people, and all the residents of the YIR; to achieve a level of water quality that provides for all potential uses; and to provide for full protection of state and federally threatened and endangered species.

(b) These standards will provide protection of the historic, existing, and potential uses for the surface waters of the Tribe and water quality standards (narrative and numeric) to sustain the designated uses and protect existing water quality. The water use and quality provisions set forth herein are established in conformance with present and potential water uses of the surface waters of the YIR and in consideration of the natural water quality potential and limitations of the same. In addition these standards shall provide a mechanism for managing and safeguarding the quality and use of all water bodies within the YIR, and provide a legal basis for regulatory controls.

(c) The Tribe has reviewed the Establishment of Numeric Criteria for Priority Toxic Pollutants for the State of California, Rule, 2000, also known as the California Toxics Rule (CTR), and has determined that for the purposes of consistency, the water quality criteria for priority pollutants in this chapter apply to waters of the YIR. The Yurok Tribe will incorporate the most current criteria for priority toxic pollutants as they are developed by the EPA. [Res. 04-46 § 3.1, adopted, 8/25/2004.]