Current implementation institutional responsibilities national and state

3 Current implementation institutional responsibilities (national and state) (USEPA, 2004) 

Primacy/authorized states implement and enforce state regulations and standards, issue permits, and monitor the activities of the regulated community. All 

Approval of primacy or authorization is a regulatory action. Where states do not receive primacy/authorization, the USEPA operates the relevant program under federal law. The USEPA also provides oversite to the primacy/authorized state s programs, including taking enforcement action as necessary. The states also must report a variety of information to the USEPA and the public to ensure that their programs are meeting the minimum standards necessary to protect water quality. 

To ensure that waters are free from toxics in toxic amounts and to help control discharges of a complex nature, whole effluent toxicity (WET) testing was added to the US NPDES under the CWA (Heber et al 1996). 

State regulatory agencies are required to integrate whole effluent tests, chemical-specific water quality criteria and bioassessment in the receiving environment into NPDES permit writing. 

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