EPA proposes modified water quality standards for Washington

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed modifications for the existing human health water quality criteria under the Federal Clean Water Act for the state of Washington.

The modified rules have been drafted in order to ‘adequately protect fish consumers in Washington from exposure to toxic pollutants’.

EPA has proposed a Fish Consumption Rate of 175g/day in order to safeguard the consumers in the state, including tribes with treaty protected rights.

Risk of cancer in the state has an estimated level of 10-6 or one-in-one-million benchmark.

The federal agency expects the state to take note of the altered quality criteria before finalising on the state limitations.

The altered rules have been drafted on the basis of recent regional and local fish consumption data, and takes into account toxicity and exposure parameters to determine human health criteria.

The existing criteria for human health protection for the state of Washington were launched in 1992, under the National Toxics Rule.

Further EPA policies, guidance, and legal requirements have also been considered before the announcement for modified rules.

Washington is expected to submit state criteria submission in a timely manner so that the federal EPA defined ones do not get finalised.

The federal agency will accept comments on the proposed criteria for 60 days following its publication in the Federal Register.