MDE Cold Water Advisory Committee

Background

Maryland’s Use Classification System for surface waters is a vital component of The Maryland’s Water Quality Standards. The Use Classification System categorizes the Aquatic Life Designated Use of water bodies as Non-tidal Warmwater, Estuarine and Marine Aquatic Life, Non-tidal Cold Water, and Recreational Trout Waters. In many cases, the Use Class of a waterbody determines which water quality criteria are used to identify impaired waters and write permit requirements. Therefore, the Use Class of a waterbody has significant policy implications.

Interactions with various stakeholder groups as well as internal discussions have highlighted certain issues associated with Maryland’s Use Classification System that need to be addressed. For example, certain streams classified as Use Class I (warmwater aquatic life) or Use Class IV (trout-stocking waters) have been shown to support naturally reproducing trout populations. This situation implies that the stream has an ‘existing use’ that is different from the current designated use. For a summary report of these streams please CLICK HERE. MDE does not currently have a policy that addresses such situations or a policy which discusses how existing use identifications will be handled.

Furthermore, certain streams support an aquatic life community that is ecologically distinct from Use Class I, III or IV streams. These streams may need to be protected under updated water quality criteria associated with one or more new Use Classes. Similarly, the method for identifying Use Class IV waters does not take into account the large variety of “put and take” fisheries that exist in Maryland. Finally, Maryland does not currently have a policy for determining the attainability (also known as a Use Attainability Analysis or UAA) of a given use class.

To help inform the Department’s efforts on these issues, the Water Quality Standards Section formed an advisory committee composed of stakeholders and subject matter experts. For the list of invited members and contact information, please CLICK HERE. The text below provides the mission of this advisory committee along with the four main objectives. Below the objectives are the materials from past committee meetings.

Mission Statement of the Committee:To provide policy recommendations to the Maryland Department of the Environment that protect Maryland’s cold and coolwater streams and the aquatic life dependent on these streams.

The Committee will accomplish the mission by achieving four separate but related objectives that will help to provide regulatory certainty while at the same time protect cold and coolwater aquatic life species found in Maryland’s surface waters:

Objective 1: Develop Departmental policy for protecting streams with cold or coolwater species in advance of changing the Use Class. Stream data sometimes shows cold or coolwater species living in streams with a warmer Use Class designation (e.g. Class I, IV). Since use class re-designation in Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) can be a lengthy process, the Department needs to adopt interim protection measures to ensure that these resources are protected.

Objective 2: Propose a new “coolwater” use classification based on analyses conducted by Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and consideration of current stream scenarios. Field studies have identified streams that exhibit “cool water” aquatic communities. These communities are dependent on temperature regimes that fall between Use Class I and Use Class III and are not currently protected or acknowledged under the current Use Classification system.

Objective 3: Propose changes to Class IV (or IV-P) recreational trout waters. Clarification is needed to improve the identification and protection of Class IV designations. Class IV waters include some impoundments where the 75°F water temperature criterion is not appropriate. In addition, there are other waters such as “put and grow” trout-stocking locations that are not currently designated as Class IV. This objective will be to revise Class IV to account for the variety of trout stocking scenarios to apply the most appropriate protection measures.

Objective 4: Develop a process for conducting Use Attainability Analyses (UAA) for surface waters that support self-sustaining trout populations but which do not currently attain Class III (or III-P) water quality criteria. Certain waters of the state which currently support coldwater species may not meet the temperature criteria for Class III. The UAA process would help inform the determination of the designated use class, either indicating that the stream is capable of supporting Class III temperature criteria under a future scenario or that it is not.