Water Quality Standards for Surface Waters of the Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, and San Francisco Bay and Delta of the State of California

Resumo

On September 3, 1991, the Regional Administrator for Region IX of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disapproved certain water quality criteria contained in the Water Quality Control Plan for Salinity for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary, that was adopted by the California State Water Resources Control Board on May 1, 1991. These criteria were disapproved because they failed to protect the Estuarine Habitat and other designated fish and wildlife uses of the estuary. Under the authority of section 303 of the Clean Water Act, this document proposes a rule establishing three sets of federal criteria to protect the designated uses of the estuary: salinity criteria protecting the Estuarine Habitat and other designated fish and wildlife uses, a second set of salinity criteria (measured in electrical conductivity) to protect the Fish Spawning (Striped Bass) designated use in the lower San Joaquin River, and a set of salmon smolt survival index criteria to protect the Fish Migration and Cold Fresh-Water Habitat designated uses in the estuary.