Plans for Managing the Quality of Rivers, Lakes, and Estuaries

• Statewide and Regional Plans
• Advisory Groups
• Houston Environmental Laboratory

Preserving and Improving Water Quality
An overview of the TCEQ's program to define, measure, and manage the quality of the state's surface waters

Surface Water Quality Standards
Standards are the benchmarks for managing water quality. They establish appropriate uses for the state’s surface waters and the criteria for evaluating support of those uses.

Statewide and Regional Plans

• Watershed Action Planning
  Coordinating, documenting, and tracking strategies that protect and restore water quality
• Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Program
  Cleanup and prevention of water pollution from urban and other non-agricultural nonpoint sources (stormwater runoff)
• Total Maximum Daily Load Program
  A program that assists stakeholders with plans for restoring the quality of impaired streams, lakes, and bays. 
• Water Quality Management Plan
  Planning documents designed to provide long-range planning and technical data for water quality management activities required under the Texas Water Code and the federal Clean Water Act.
• Continuing Planning Process for Water Quality
  TCEQ’s management and technical procedures to control, manage, and abate water pollution in Texas.

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Advisory Groups

• Advisory Work Group for the Surface Water Quality Standards
  Advises the TCEQ on options for revising the Texas Surface Water Quality Standards (30 TAC Chapter 307) and the Procedures to Implement the Texas Surface Water Quality Standards, RG-94.
• Advisory Work Group for the Assessment Guidance
  Advises the TCEQ on revisions to the Guidance for Assessing and Reporting Surface Water Quality in Texas.
• Participating in TMDL Projects
  How people can be involved in developing TMDLs and their implementation plans.
• Stakeholder Participation in the Texas Clean Rivers Program
  How people are involved in activities of the Clean Rivers Program.
• Stakeholder Involvement in the Nonpoint Source Program
  

  Briefly describes the program's Stakeholder Workgroup and the TCEQ's partnership with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board.

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Houston Environmental Laboratory

Sixteen TCEQ regional field offices and EPA Region VI submit samples to the TCEQs Houston Laboratory for analysis. The lab:

• Analyzes samples of water, wastewater, soils, sediments, and sludge.
• Develops analytical procedures and supports special investigations, projects, and monitoring activities through cooperative agreements with other agencies.

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