Laserfiche WebLink
NEW WATER SUPPLY CLASSIFICATIONS <br /> <br /> A. Background Information <br /> <br /> Up until 1986, the NOrth Carolina regulations pertaini~9 to <br />.Water Quality Standards and Classifications (15 NCAc 2B .0100 to <br /> .0300) had two classifications for surface water supplies which <br /> included Class A-I and A-II. Class A-I waters had watersheds <br /> which were undisturbed and uninhabited and the water was <br /> considered suitable for consumption after disinfection. Ail <br /> Class A-I waters were located in the mountains of North Carolina <br /> and many were on lands protected by the National Forest Service. <br /> This class represented about 200 miles (<1%) of the over 37,000 <br /> miles of all classified freshwater in North Carolina. Class A-II <br /> waters represented all other surface water supplies in North <br /> Carolina and occurred as stream segments throughout the state. <br /> These A-II segments required full treatment as approved by the <br /> Division of Health Services (DHS) in the Department of Human <br /> ReSources prior to water supply use and represented 6100 miles <br /> (16%) of the classified waters in the State. <br /> <br /> The old A-Il classification made no distinction between <br /> headwater water supplies with no or few sources of pollution and <br /> run-of-the-river supplies or impoundments which had numerous <br /> potential and existing sources of point and nonpoint pollutants. <br /> Previous water supply classifications did not encourage potential <br /> users to select more protected sources or take actions to protect <br /> existing sources. Since all water supplies requiring full <br /> treatment were classified as A-II, this tended to encourage users <br /> to select sources with the largest water yield. These large yield <br /> sources generally had watersheds with more potential sources of <br /> contaminants than smaller, lower yield watersheds. <br /> <br /> The new classification scheme has three classes (WS-I, WS-II <br /> and WS-III) which are defined according to the amount and types <br /> of permitted point source discharges and include a requirement <br /> for land use management to control nonpoint sources of pollution. <br /> Class WS-I watersheds must have no point source discharges. <br /> Domestic discharges (including schools, individual homes, <br /> municipalitics not requiring a pretreatment program and approved <br /> non-process [cooling] water discharges) will be allowed in Class <br /> WS-II watersheds. In addition, WS-I and WS-II watersheds must <br /> have local land use management programs to protect water supplies <br /> from nonpoint sources. Guidance on preparation of programs to <br /> control nonpoint sources is available from the Division of <br /> Environmental Management (DEM), Water Quality Section. <br /> <br /> ~TE~ I~lll"t3ER 5 <br /> <br /> <br />