What are Designated Uses?
A designated use describes a particular function of (or activity in) a waterbody that requires a specific level of water quality to support it. Designated uses can be thought of as water quality goals or endpoints for water resources, reflecting their value for aquatic life, the protection of human health through safe and treatable drinking water sources, and recreation. With these goals defined, water quality standards further establish criteria (or minimum conditions) necessary to achieve and maintain those goals.
All waterbodies in Kentucky have assigned designated uses for the management and goal of attaining a minimum level of water quality.
Designated uses are promulgated in
401 KAR 10:026 and the implementing criteria are in
401 KAR 10:031. The following are examples of applicable designated uses:
- Warm water aquatic habitat (WAH)
- Cold water aquatic habitat (CAH)
- Primary contact recreation (PCR)
- Secondary contact recreation (SCR)
- Domestic water supply (DWS)
- Outstanding state resource water(OSRW)
Fish consumption, while not explicitly defined as a designated use in Kentucky's Water Quality Standards, it is recognized as an existing use with established water quality and tissue-based criteria that are protective of human health.
Definitions for designated uses can be found in
401 KAR 10:001.
Note: Collectively, WAH and CAH are subcategories of the aquatic life use as defined in
CWA Section 101(a)(2).
With the exception of CAH and OSRW, the remaining designated uses apply by default to all Kentucky waterbodies, unless a use attainability analysis has been approved to remove a designated use as documented in
401 KAR 10:026. Additionally, human health criteria applicable to the domestic water supply use are implemented only at intake locations maintained by public water systems..
OSRW is a state-defined designated use that implements additional protective water quality criteria for certain waters including Kentucky Wild Rivers, Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers, waterbodies that support federally listed threatened or endangered species and waters of exceptional aesthetic or ecological value, among others. The
Special Waters page has additional information on those waters redesignated as OSRWs and waters categorized as Exceptional or Outstanding National Resource Waters that receive additional protections.
Every two years, the Division of Water (DOW) completes formal assessments of the health and condition of individual waterbodies, using monitoring data to evaluate whether criteria applicable to each designated use are being met. Information on the results of DOW's water quality assessments is available in the
Integrated Report.