The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is publishing recommended water quality criteria to reduce problems associated with excess nutrients in waterbodies in specific areas of the country. This is the first time an effort has been made to establish nutrient standards that are protective of ecosystem health -- rather than levels designed to protect human health in drinking water.  EPA is working with the states and tribes to adopt regional-specific and locally appropriate water quality criteria for nutrients in lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams, and wetlands in seventeen ecoregions.  Click on the following hyperlinks for details about the process of developing National Nutrient Criteria and specific details on proposed Ecoregional Nutrient Criteria.

Cacapon Institute made a presentation to the WV Environmental Quality Board on the relationship between the USEPA's proposed nutrient criteria and the nutrient levels we find in our study streams.  To see that presentation, click here.  Following the slide show, you may wish to take a look at the land use maps of all of our study sites.

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