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Antidegradation Tier 2

Tier 2 is aimed at preventing “freefall” of ambient water quality—that is, having the water quality decline, from being considerably better than the baseline water quality criteria down to just barely meeting those criteria. Note the stipulations required for allowing activities that degrade water quality: you must ensure that point sources and nonpoint sources are appropriately controlled; you must accommodate public and governmental agency input; and you must assess potential alternatives that would prevent or preclude water quality degradation and perform a socioeconomic evaluation on the alternatives.