Kentucky completed its triennial review of water quality standards regulations in September 2004 with approval of the regulations by the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. The primary focus of this triennial review was to address the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) outstanding disapproval of a part of the antidegradation regulation 401 KAR 5:030. This was done by creating a new category of "high quality" to which waters default if they are not "outstanding national resource," "exceptional" or "impaired" waters. Other changes included the addition of 146 exceptional waters, updates to numerous criteria for the various designated uses based on EPA's most recent publication of recommended criteria in the Federal Register and strengthening of the mixing zone provisions.

EPA approved all the regulations (401 KAR 5:002; 5:026; 5:029; and 5:031) in December 2004 and the antidegradation regulation (5:030) in April 2005. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit against EPA; in September 2008 the Sixth District Federal Court remanded parts of the antidegradation implementation procedures in 10:030 back to EPA. An effort is ongoing between the Division of Water stakeholders and EPA to resolve the remand.

The commonwealth is in the final stages of a current triennial review that formally began in 2007. Some significant outcomes from this regulatory review include the following:
(1) significantly updating 10:026, adding a table that references the water bodies and withdrawal points for public domestic water suppliers (these points are where drinking water criteria in 10:031 apply)
(2) all water bodies that are designated as Outstanding State Resource Water (OSRW) and Coldwater Aquatic Habitat (CAH) are listed in 10:026, giving location and segment information
(3) designating of all exceptional and reference reach water bodies as OSRWs in 10:026
(4) proposing the addition of five water bodies as Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW) in 10:030
(5) updating water quality criteria where appropriate in 10:031.

The next triennial review will be devoted primarily to a single significant water quality issue -- nutrient criteria for wadeable streams and reservoirs. Also under review will be the necessity for any changes for wet weather standards for contact recreation use and consideration of candidates for additional outstanding national resource and exceptional waters. Other anticipated changes include updates to water quality criteria based on EPA's most recently published recommended criteria.

The regulations can be found on the Legislative Research Commission Web site.