E.P.A. Suggests Water Quality Requirements for Washington State

E.P.A. has suggested a rule that revises the current federal Clean Water Act human health water quality criteria applicable to waters under the state of Washington's jurisdiction. The suggested rule would ensure that the criteria are set at levels that will adequately protect fish consumers in Washington from exposure to toxic pollutants. To protect fish consumers in Washington, including tribes with treaty protected rights, E.P.A. suggests to derive the criteria using a Fish Consumption Rate of 175 g/day. The cancer risk level remains at the currently established ten^-6 or one-in-one-million benchmark.

E.P.A. will accept comments on the suggested rule for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

E.P.A. would prefer that Washington finalize state water quality criteria that would protect fish consumers in Washington. It remains EPA's strong preference to support states in their development of water quality requirements to protect state waters rather than to develop requirements at the national level.

In 1992, E.P.A. established Washington's existing criteria for the protection of human health as part of the National Toxics Rule, using the Agency's recommended criteria values at the time. EPA's suggested rule updates the fish consumption rate based on more recent regional and local fish consumption data, as well as updates the toxicity and exposure parameters used to calculate human health criteria. The suggestion also takes into account applicable E.P.A. policies, guidance, and legal requirements, to protect human health.

If the state of Washington submits final criteria to E.P.A. for approval under the Clean Water Act before E.P.A. finalizes the federal human health water quality criteria, E.P.A. will review and act upon the state's submission in a timely manner and prior to any final action on the federal criteria. If E.P.A. approves criteria submitted by the state, the corresponding federal criteria will not be finalized.

More Information:

• Federal Water Quality Requirements for Washington State
• Fact sheet: Suggested Revision of Federal Human Health Criteria Applicable to Washington (PDF) (2 pp, 91K)

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