The 303(d) Listed Impaired Waters program system provides impaired
water data and impaired water features reflecting river segments,
lakes, and estuaries designated under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water
Act. Each State will establish Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for
these waters. Note the CWA Section 303(d) list of impaired waters does
not represent waters that are impaired but have an EPA-approved TMDL
established, impaired waters for which other pollution control
mechanisms are in place and expected to attain water quality standards,
or waters impaired as a result of pollution and is not caused by a
pollutant; therefore, the "Impaired Waters" layers do not
represent all impaired waters reported in a state's Integrated Report,
but only the waters comprised of a state's approved 303(d) list. For
more information regarding impaired waters refer to EPA's Integrated
Reporting Guidance at:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/guidance.html
303(d) Waterbodies are coded onto NHD linear and area features to
create Linear, Polygonal and Point Events. Point events represent
impaired waterbody segments that do not fall on an NHD reach. 303(d)
Waterbodies are coded onto NHD Waterbody reaches (region.rch) to create
datasets. In addition to NHD reach indexed data there may also be
custom event data (point, line, or polygon) that are not associated
with NHD and are in an EPA standard format that is compatible with
EPA's Reach Address Database. These custom features are used to
represent locations of 303(d) waterbodies that are not represented well
in NHD.