Water Quality Objectives

Water quality protection or improvement is essential to support:

• Ecosystems
• Human health, and
• Other shared water values

Water Quality Objectives (WQOs) provide approved policy direction to guide the balance between human use, values and water environments by guiding decisions that may impact a specific waterbody.

WQOs are established on a priority basis for freshwater, estuarine and marine waterbodies of regional, provincial, inter-provincial and international significance.

They're used to:

• Inform resource management decisions
• Identify which values should be addressed based on local concerns
• Promote water stewardship, and
• Support long-term planning in communities across B.C.

WQOs are numbers or statements representing low-risk conditions to provide protection for a specific waterbody and its associated water values and uses.

These include:

• Drinking water sources
• Aquatic life and its habitat
• Wildlife and its habitat
• Agriculture (livestock watering and irrigation)
• Recreational use and aesthetics
• Traditional, cultural and social uses

Objectives are informed by a site-specific water quality assessment using:

• B.C. approved water quality guidelines or similar information
• The values identified for the waterbody
• The desired level of protection, and
• Local and Indigenous knowledge

The development of WQOs is a collaborative process and may include partnerships with other levels of government, including First Nations.

New WQOs

• Burrard Inlet Water Quality Objectives (February 2024)

WQO reports

• West Coast Region
• South Coast Region
• Thompson-Okanagan Region
• Kootenay-Boundary Region
• Cariboo Region
• Skeena Region
• Omineca-Northeast Region

Draft WQOs

Draft Water Quality Objective Policy Reports are open for public review:

• Draft Water Quality Objective Policy Reports

WQO reports for download

• Water Quality Objectives Fact Sheet (PDF, 678KB)