Approved, interim, and working water quality guidelines for British Columbia. The guidelines are concentrations of substances or physical attributes predicted to protect specific water values including aquatic life, wildlife, agriculture, drinking water, and recreation. They are generic provincial recommendations derived from the most current scientific information.
Use Cases
- Establish regulatory thresholds for pollutants based on guideline concentrations.
- Assess water body health for aquatic life based on physical attribute guidelines.
- Evaluate water suitability for agricultural use against agricultural water quality guidelines.
- Determine recreational water safety standards using recreation-focused guidelines.
- Compare provincial water quality recommendations with federal or international standards.
Strengths
- Guidelines are categorized as approved, interim, and working, providing a spectrum of regulatory certainty.
- Guidelines are based on the most current scientific information available at the time of derivation.
- Coverage includes multiple water values: aquatic life, wildlife, agriculture, drinking water, and recreation.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Freshness should be verified despite the last updated date of 2026-04-17.
Provenance
- Source
- Government of British Columbia
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-04-17 15:32:31.802967
- Geography
- British Columbia, Canada