The Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program

The Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program

The Clean Water Act Section 303(d) program strives to strategically plan and prioritize activities, engage partners, and analyze and utilize data to develop water quality assessments, plans, and implementation approaches to restore, and protect the Nation’s aquatic resources.

The 2022 Vision

The 2022 - 2032 Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program (“2022 Vision”) identifies opportunities to manage effectively Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 303(d) program activities to achieve water quality goals for the Nation’s aquatic resources such as streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries and wetlands. The 2022 Vision articulates a renewal of the initial 2013 long-term Vision and associated Goals, as well as to introduce new Focus Areas for the CWA Section 303(d) program. The Goals outline aspirations and highlight opportunities to implement CWA Section 303(d) program activities in the following categories – Planning and Prioritization, Restoration, Protection, Data and Analysis, and Partnerships. Focus Areas provide four cross-cutting themes of national, regional and local importance, consistent with broad Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) priorities, to consider in CWA Section 303(d) program implementation – Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Tribal Water Quality and Program Development, and Program Capacity Building. This Vision outlines a framework to organize program activities; it does not constitute regulation, policy or new mandates.

• Memorandum: 2022-2032 Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program (pdf) (246.09 KB, September 2022)
• 2022 - 2032 Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program (pdf) (285.77 KB, September 2022)

Resource Library

For the last decade, EPA’s national CWA Section 303(d) program has centered its trainings and work products around the Goals of the 2013 Vision. EPA has worked with various program partners to develop these materials, which formed a robust collection of information to advance implementation of the 2013 Vision. These resources will continue to provide a foundation for implementation of the 2022 Vision.

Webpages

• Other Restoration Plans 
• Protection Approaches
• 2013 Vision

Compendia

• Compendium of Approaches to Evaluating the Water Quality Effects of TMDL Implementation 
• Approaches to Clean Water Communication 
  • Simplifying Water Quality Terminology: Ways that States, Tribes, and Territories Have Communicated with the Public 
• Compendium of State Approaches to Protection 
• Compendium of Water Quality Restoration Approaches 
• Overview of State Prioritization Frameworks 
• The Compendium of Approaches to Incorporating Climate Change into the CWA 303(d) Program
• The Compendium of Approaches to Incorporating Environmental Justice into the CWA 303(d) Program

Guidance

• Information Concerning 2016 Clean Water Act Sections 303(d), 305(b) and 314 Integrated Reporting and Listing Decisions (pdf) (222.08 KB)
• CWA Section 303(d) 2022-2032 Vision Metric Computational Guidance (pdf) (432.68 KB, 8/30/2024)

Conferences and Webinars

• Clean Water Act 303(d) Training Workshops 
• Recovery Potential Screening Tool for Watershed Prioritization