Water quality, an important factor in healthy ecosystems, is at the center of DEQ’s efforts to protect and improve Virginia’s streams, rivers, bays, wetlands, and groundwater.

DEQ has many water quality programs working to achieve and maintain the goals of the Clean Water Act and State Water Control Law to protect human health, aquatic life, and other beneficial uses of Virginia’s water resources.  Along with local, state, and federal partners, Virginia residents play an active role as stewards working to protect and, where necessary, improve water quality in the Commonwealth. The integration of water quality programs in DEQ is referred to as the Continuous Planning Process, depicted below. 

Virginia’s Continuing Planning Process for Water Quality Management - 2023

The primary goal of Virginia’s Continuing Planning Process (CPP) is to maintain the state’s Water Quality Standards (WQS), which DEQ achieves by monitoring and assessing water quality, limiting the discharge of pollutants from point sources, and promoting the implementation of control programs and practices to mitigate water quality impacts from nonpoint sources. Where water quality impairments are identified, DEQ takes a lead role in developing cleanup studies, also known as Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), to address the cause(s) of the impairment(s) and establish a cleanup plan. While TMDL studies are the primary approach for addressing water quality impairments, Virginia has also utilized non-TMDL options, such as watershed management plans, to address impairments.

The water quality programs of Virginia DEQ implement the CPP graphically presented above. The process is dynamic and ongoing. Each of the programs identified in the CPP graphic is briefly summarized below. Additional information on each program is available on its respective website, which is available via the embedded link in the graphic.