(a) Development and Adoption of Classifications and Standards. – The Commission is hereby directed and empowered, as rapidly as possible within the limits of funds and facilities available to it, and subject to the procedural requirements of this Article:

(1) To develop and adopt, after proper study, a series of classifications and the standards applicable to each such classification, which will be appropriate for the purpose of classifying each of the waters of the State in such a way as to promote the policy and purposes of this Article most effectively;

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(2) To survey all the waters of the State and to separately identify all such waters as the Commission believes ought to be classified separately in order to promote the policy and purposes of this Article, omitting only such waters, as in the opinion of the Commission, are insufficiently important to justify classification or control under this Article; and

(3) To assign to each identified water of the State such classification, from the series adopted as specified above, as the Commission deems proper in order to promote the policy and purposes of this Article most effectively.

(b) Criteria for Classification. – In developing and adopting classifications, and the standards applicable to each, the Commission shall recognize that a number of different classifications should be provided for (with different standards applicable to each) so as to give effect to the need for balancing conflicting considerations as to usage and other variable factors; that different classifications with different standards applicable thereto may frequently be appropriate for different segments of the same water; and that each classification and the standards applicable thereto should be adopted with primary reference to the best usage to be made of the waters to which such classification will be assigned.

(c) Criteria for Standards. – In establishing the standards applicable to each classification, the Commission shall consider and the standards when finally adopted and published shall state: the extent to which any physical, chemical, or biological properties should be prescribed as essential to the contemplated best usage.

(d) Criteria for Assignment of Classifications. – In assigning to  each identified water the appropriate classifications (with its accompanying standards), the Commission shall consider, and the decision of the Commission when finally adopted and published shall contain its conclusions with respect to the following factors as related to such identified waters:

(1) The size, depth, surface area covered, volume, direction and rate of flow, stream gradient and temperature of the water;

(2) The character of the district bordering said water, including any peculiar suitability such district may have or any dominant economic interest or development which has become established in relation to or by reason of any particular use of such water;

(3) The uses and extent thereof which have been made, are being made, or may in the future be made, of such water for domestic consumption, bathing, fish or wildlife and their culture, industrial consumption, transportation, fire prevention, power generation, scientific or research uses, the disposal of sewage, industrial wastes and other wastes, or any other uses;

(4) In revising existing or adopting new water quality classifications or standards, the Commission shall consider the use and value of State waters for public water supply, propagation of fish and wildlife, recreation, agriculture, industrial and other purposes, use and value for navigation, and shall take into consideration, among other things, an estimate as prepared under section 305(b)(1) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act amendments of 1972 of the environmental impact, the economic and social costs necessary to achieve the proposed standards, the economic and social benefits of such achievement and an estimate of the date of such achievement;

(5) With regard to the groundwaters, the factors to be considered shall include the natural quality of the water below land surface and the condition of occurrences, recharge, movement and discharge, the vulnerability to pollution from wastewaters and other substances, and the potential for improvement of the quality and quantity of the water.

(e) Chapter 150B of the N.C. Gen. Stat. governs the adoption and publication of rules under this Article.

(f), (g) Repealed by Session Laws 1987, c. 827, s. 156.

 (1951, c. 606; 1957, c. 1275, s. 2; 1967, c. 892, s. 1; 1969, c. 822, s. 1; 1973, c. 1262, s. 23; 1975, c. 19, s. 50; c. 583, s. 8; c. 655, s. 5; 1977, c. 771, s. 4; 1979, c. 633, s. 6; 1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1199; 1983, c. 296, s. 1; 1987, c. 827, ss. 154, 156.)