As part of the obligation to protect Pennsylvania's waters, DEP conducts assessments of protected water uses. Assessment decisions fall into three general statuses: supporting, impaired, or unassessed. For example, a body of water is considered "impaired" if it fails to meet one or more water quality standards. The Pennsylvania Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report (Integrated Report) includes both a narrative description of the Commonwealth's water quality and waterbody-specific lists depicting the assessment status of surface waters as required by Section 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act.
The final Integrated Report is due to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for review and approval on or before April 1 of even years. The process of finalizing an Integrated Report and submitting to EPA every two years requires developing a draft and providing the draft for public comment. Once the public comment period ends, a comment and response document is created, and the Integrated Report is submitted to EPA as final. Click on the links to view the most recent Integrated Reports and contact DEP's Water Quality Division at 717-787-9637 for more information on previous Integrated Reports.