©2007 KBS
Biological Criteria Workgroup
As directed by the Clean Water Act, the US EPA has set a priority for the development of biological water quality criteria. Biological criteria are valuable because they directly measure the condition of the resource at risk, detect problems that other methods may miss or underestimate, and provide a systematic process for measuring progress resulting from the implementation of water quality programs.
The initial phase of this program directs State adoption of narrative biological criteria as part of State water quality standards. CPCB is assisting the US EPA Region 7 Biocriteria Workgroup in this effort. When implemented, biological criteria will expand and improve water quality standards programs, help identify impairment of beneficial uses, and help set program priorities.
Criteria and guideline development
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The Biocriteria Workgroup hard at work. |
The US EPA Region 7 Biocriteria Workgroup has nominated 250 candidate reference streams in Region 7. CPCB is currently creating a database of physical, chemical, habitat, and biological data for these reference streams. The workgroup is working together to develop from this database an appropriate set of regional reference condition guidelines that may be applied to streams throughout the region. See US EPA's Biocriteria program at http://www.epa.gov/ost/biocriteria/index.html.
- Biological Condition Gradient: View a presentation of CPCB's work (pdf 800k).
- CPCB streams database: :http://www.cpcb.ku.edu/datalibrary/html/databases/index.htm
- Workgroup documents: Biological Methods Comparison
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Slide from: “Development of Reference Conditions
for Stream Biological Assessment in Iowa”, given by Tom Wilton,Iowa
DNR. Photo credit: John Olson, IDNR. |
Regional Workshops
The workgroup also develops topics of interest for regional biocriteria workshops. These workshops are typically held once a year and are hosted by CPCB at the Kansas Biological Survey facility in Lawrence, Kansas.
Workshops are posted at http://www.cpcb.ku.edu/workshops/html/index.htm and include:
- Sampling Methodologies in the Central Plains
- Programmatic and Applied Uses of Biological Information in Protecting Aquatic Resources
- Stream Habitat Assessment
- Reference Conditions and Landscape-Scale Bioassessment.
Workgroup Members |
Affiliation |
| Bob Angelo | Kansas Department of Health and Environment |
| Debbie Baker | CPCB |
| Ken Bazata | Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality |
| Matt Combes | Missouri Department of Conservation |
| Steve Cringan | Kansas Department of Health and Environment |
| Todd Hubbard | Iowa University Hygienic Laboratory |
| Don Huggins | CPCB |
| Charlie Rabeni | University of Missouri - Columbia |
| Randy Sarver | Missouri Department of Natural Resources |
| Dave Schumacher | Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality |
| Steve Walker | Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality |
| Gary Welker | Workgroup Coordinator -- USEPA Region 7 |
| Tom Wilton | Iowa Department of Natural Resources |
