To manage water quality at a local level, ODA created 38 watershed-based regions, called Water Quality Management Areas. Each Management Area has a water quality management plan called an Area Plan.
Area Plans describe the geographic, biological, and agricultural features of the area, identify any known water quality issues and provide recommended strategies that farmers, ranchers, and landowners can implement to improve water quality. The goal of each Area Plan, like the AgWQ Program, is to prevent and control water pollution from agricultural activities and soil erosion to achieve applicable water quality standards. This goal is accomplished through helping landowners make on-the-ground changes, resulting in improved upland and streamside conditions that will protect water quality.
To manage water quality at a local level, ODA created 38 watershed-based regions, called Water Quality Management Areas. Each Management Area has a water quality management plan called an Area Plan. These Area Plans describe the geographic, biological, and agricultural features of the area, identify any known water quality issues and provide recommended strategies that farmers, ranchers, and landowners can implement to improve water quality. The goal of each Area Plan, like the AgWQ Program, is to prevent and control water pollution from agricultural activities and soil erosion to achieve applicable water quality standards. This goal is accomplished through helping landowners make on-the-ground changes, resulting in improved upland and streamside conditions that will protect water quality.
Area Plans provide guidance for addressing water quality related to agricultural activities in each Management Area. Area Plans are unenforceable. Each Area Plan identifies strategies to prevent and control water pollution from agricultural lands through a combination of outreach programs, suggested land treatments, voluntary management activities, funding, compliance with Area Rules, and monitoring.
The map provides information on:
- What Management Area you live in
- Which Agricultural Water Quality Rules apply to your property
- Who your Regional Water Quality Specialist is
- Area Plans are updated every other year by the Regional Water Quality Specialist at ODA and the Local Advisory Council or LAC. The LACs are groups of local people, primarily farmers and ranchers, who ensure that local water quality protection and improvement efforts are planned in a way that works for the local agricultural, environmental, and tribal considerations. The LAC identifies local agricultural water quality problems and opportunities for improvement.
Management area documents
Administrative Rules, Area Plans, Biennial Reviews, and Executive Summaries are available below by clicking on the management area. For DEQ and drinking-water updates for area plan reviews, see
DEQ’s website.