The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), on behalf of the State Water Control Board, submits a Toxics Reduction in State Waters (Toxics) Report to the Governor and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth by January 1st of each odd-numbered year, in accordance with § 62.1-44.17:3 of the Code of Virginia.

The Report: Toxics Reduction in State Waters

The primary objective of the Toxics Report is to document the state’s commitment to improving water quality, more specifically in relation to chemical contamination which may induce toxic effects on aquatic life, other wildlife or on human health. This commitment includes:

1. The prevention of contamination of the Commonwealth’s waters by toxics,

2. The persistent monitoring of those waters for the presence of toxics, and

3. The implementation of remedial measures to reduce and/or eliminate toxics found in the state’s waters.

Although the reduction of toxics in the state’s waters is primarily the responsibility of DEQ, various other agencies and organizations participate in the process, including the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Interstate Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This report summarizes the results of current activities directed toward toxics reduction and provides guidance on how to access further resources and information on specific subjects.

DEQ submitted the first Toxics Report in January 1998. The January 1999 report provided basic background information related to the report’s objectives and a basic model for its continued evolution. The current, nineteenth Toxics Report (January 2019) provides a summary of the toxics-related prevention, monitoring and remediation activities of the previous two State Fiscal Years (SFY) and contains tables of both raw data and statistical summaries of SFY17 and 18 monitoring results. Historical summaries of results from 1997 through the present are available on the agency’s website at https://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/WaterQualityMonitoring.aspx.