A brief overview of antidegradation can be found here. Federal legislation says states must have an antidegration policy that:

• Protects designated uses
• Attempts to maintain high quality waters
• Provides mechanism to provide extra protection for exceptional ecological or recreational significance. These are often called ONRWs.

Alaska adopted its current antidegradation policy in 1997. EPA approved Alaska's policy with the stipulation that Alaska write implementation guidance. To date Alaska has not finalized implementation guidance but has interim guidance.

Each state's regulations generally mirror federal policy but they vary widely in how they implement that policy so Alaska can evaluate what has worked in other states, what has not worked, and tailor our antidegradation implementation guidance to suit our water quality needs. To gather information to write implementation guidance DEC:

• Hired a contractor to evaluate implementation guidance from other states. Report.
• Held a conference and invited specialists to discuss options. LINK

Writing final antidegradation implementation guidance is a top priority for DEC. To write, adopt, and approve final guidance DEC assembled a workgroup in 2012 comprised of stakeholders to evaluate options and set up a teleconferences to educate the public on antidegradation issues. The workgroup has met twice will meet four or five more times in the near future to develop recommendations.

Teleconferences April 24^th and April 26^th:

• Letter to Community and Tribal Leaders
• Public Notice on the teleconference
• Presentation for Teleconference

Antidegration Workgroup

• Agenda for the entire process
• Draft Workgoup Report Outline
• The notebook containing information used by the workgroup is here.
• Work Plan
• Meeting 1: February 2-3, 2012, Agenda
  • Summary of Meeting #1
• Meeting 2: March 14-15 Agenda
  • Summary of Meeting #2
• Meeting 3: May 8-9 Agenda
  • Public Notice
• Workgroup member list

The notebook containing information used by the workgroup is here.

Staff Contact Information for Antidegradation issues:

Nancy Sonafrank
Program Manager
Water Quality Standards, Assessment & Restoration
Nancy.Sonafrank@alaska.gov
(907) 451-2726

To join the email list for updated information about antidegradation click here.