The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) 305(b) report documents the general quality of surface waters in Tennessee.  It contains information about streams, lakes, and wetlands, and identifies streams that are currently posted due to fish contamination and/or elevated bacteria levels.

View 2014 305(b) report.

Streams and lakes in Tennessee are ranked based on five use support categories, for seven designated uses.

Designated uses:

1. Fish and aquatic life
2. Recreation
3. Irrigation
4. Livestock watering and wildlife
5. Domestic water supply
6. Navigation
7. Industrial water supply

Use support categories:

1. Waters are fully supporting of all designated uses.
2. Waters are fully supporting of some designated uses, but have not been assessed for all uses.
3. Waters are not assessed for any use due to insufficient or outdated data.
4. Waters are impaired but a TMDL has not been completed or is not required. Split into three subcategories:
   
   1. impaired waters that have already had all necessary TMDLs approved by EPA.
   2. imparied waters do not require TMDL development.
   3. impaired waters in which the impacts are not caused by a pollutant.
5. Waters have been monitored and found to not meet one or more water quality standards.

Other Resources

• TDEC's Division of Water Supply has a groundwater quality report that is helpful.
• TDEC's Division of Water Pollution Control has a proposed list of impaired Tennessee waters, called the 303(d) list.
• The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water has numerous water resources of all kinds.