The purpose of the Water Quality Executive Committee (WQEC) is to facilitate collaborative decision-making, cooperative action, and information sharing among the five States of the Upper Mississippi River Basin (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin) with regard to water quality issues on the Upper Mississippi River, and to provide a policy link between collective actions and individual actions by the States.
Each agency with representation on the WQEC participates under the auspices of its own authorities governing interagency coordination and water pollution control. Participation does not restrict any individual agency or State’s authority to issue permits, manage programs, set water quality standards, operate projects, or fulfill other individual agency mandates. The views expressed and actions taken by individual agency representatives and by the WQEC are not binding on any agency, unless the member agencies explicitly enter into a binding agreement.
