(a) Each river authority and designated local government that has entered into an agreement with the commission to perform duties under this chapter shall:
  (1) Organize and lead a basin-wide steering committee to assist with the development of water quality objectives and priorities for the basin and to fulfill responsibilities described in §220.5 of this title (relating Responsibilities of Steering Committees). Membership of the committee will reflect a diversity of interests in the basin and will include persons paying fees described under Chapter 21 of this title (relating to Water Quality Fees), the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and other appropriate state agencies (for example, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Water Development Board, Texas General Land Office, Texas Department of Health, Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Railroad Commission, and the Texas Department of Transportation), private citizens, representatives from political subdivisions, and other persons with an interest in water quality matters in the watershed or river basin.
  (2) Develop and maintain a basin-wide water quality monitoring program that eliminates duplicative monitoring, facilitates the assessment process to identify problem areas and support long-term trend analyses, and targets monitoring to support the wastewater discharge permitting and standards process.
    (A) A quality assurance project plan must be developed and approved to support all data collection activities. Data collected by subcontractors and others under this program must conform to the approved quality assurance project plans.
    (B) The water quality monitoring program shall address collection of baseline water quality data to support trend analyses and development of the statewide water quality inventory required under federal Clean Water Act, §305(b).
    (C) The water quality monitoring program shall include site-specific data collection to support the wastewater discharge permitting process for fee payers in the basin.
    (D) The water quality monitoring program shall include watershed specific data collection to address priority water quality problem areas identified by river authority trends analyses or steering committee input.
  (3) Establish and maintain a watershed and river basin water quality database and/or clearinghouse composed of quality-assured data, river authority programs, wastewater discharge permit holders, state and federal agencies, and other relevant data sources. This data shall be submitted to the commission for inclusion in the State of Texas Surface Water Quality Monitoring database and shall be made available to any interested person.
    (A) Each river authority and designated local government shall establish and maintain the technology to aid in the electronic dissemination of water quality data and information for their basin. Water quality data for the basin shall be submitted to the commission at a minimum of once every six months in an agreed format for inclusion in the statewide water quality database.
    (B) River authorities and designated local governments shall participate in task force meetings to establish, review, and update data management procedures to reflect changes in information management technology.
  (4) Identify water quality problems and known pollution sources and set priorities for taking appropriate actions to eliminate those problems and sources.
    (A) Each river authority shall utilize the commission's procedures for data evaluation and analyses to the maximum extent possible. If alternative evaluation processes are necessary, the procedure must be presented in writing to the commission for approval by the executive director prior to its application.
    (B) In order to assure inclusion in the development of the statewide water quality inventory, the analytical procedures shall be comparable to those used by the commission.
    (C) Steering committees shall be provided the opportunity to actively participate in the identification of priority problem areas and the development of appropriate actions to address the problems and pollutant sources. Steering committees shall have the opportunity to determine the priority of maintaining or protecting watersheds with existing good quality water.
  (5) Develop a process for public participation that includes the basin steering committee and that provides for meaningful review and comments by private citizens and organizations in the local watersheds.
  (6) Recommend water quality management strategies for correcting identified water quality problems and pollution sources.
  (7) Develop work plans which include priorities of the state and regional water quality management program. Upon agreement between the commission, the river authority, and/or designated local government, the provisions of the work plan become the scope of work of the program contract or cooperative agreement.
(b) Each local government or other agency that collects water quality data within the watershed shall cooperate with the river authority or designated local government in developing the basin monitoring plan and assessment by providing to the river authority all of the information available to that organization about water quality within its jurisdiction, including the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality. Data collected by local governments must be consistent with an approved quality assurance plan to be included for wastewater discharge permitting and standards decisions.
(c) Monitoring and assessment is a continuing duty and shall be revised periodically with appropriate amendments and updates to the quality assurance plans to reflect changes in procedures and factors subject to the assessment.

Source Note: The provisions of this §220.4 adopted to be effective October 6, 2002, 27 TexReg 9363; amended to be effective March 29, 2018, 43 TexReg 1868