Impairment Listing of Lower Susquehanna River

A CLA volunteer attorney assisted the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper draft comments to submit to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Pennsylvania’s failure to list the Lower Susquehanna River on the Clean Water Act (CWA) 303(d) impaired waters list. Under the CWA, states are required to establish water quality standards for state waters by first designating the water’s uses and then by establishing water quality criteria necessary to protect those uses. States must then make a list of waters that do not meet state water quality standards, commonly known as the ‘impaired waters list.’ States are required to submit these lists to EPA for approval every two years. Pennsylvania has never listed the Lower Susquehanna River as impaired. Pennsylvania once again chose not to list the river on its 2016 list, despite compelling evidence that the River’s population of small mouth bass – a once-thriving species with significant commercial and recreational value – is being devastated by chemicals, pesticides, and other pollutants.