Key Issues in Setting Water Quality Standards

• Date: 01 March 2015

3-2015 NEWS & ANALYSIS 45 ELR 10193

D I A L O G U E

Key Issues in Setting Water

Quality Standards

Summary

When setting water quality standards (WQS) for

surface water, every state in the nation is faced with

the question of “how clean is clean enough?” e

standard set by the state is important to citizens,

who rely upon a high level of water quality, as well

as municipal and industrial wastewater dischargers

who must comply with permit limits that take WQS

into account. An issue receiving increasing attention

is the health risk to persons who eat relatively large

amounts of sh and shellsh that may be contami-

nated with toxic substances. ree states in the Pacic

Northwest—Idaho, Oregon, and Washington—are

leading the way in considering whether to base their

WQS on higher rates of sh consumption, resulting

in more stringent standards. On September 16, 2014,

the Environmental Law Institute convened an expert

panel to answer questions such as: What are the key

issues in setting WQS? How does a state calculate the

amount of sh its citizens eat? What are the relative

roles of EPA, states, the public, and industry in ensur-

ing that state WQS are protective of a ll populations?

What will happen to industry discharge permits as a

result of new WQS? Below, we present a transcript of

the event, which has been edited for style, clarity, and

space considerations.

Fred Andes (moderator) is Partner and Water Team Leader

at Barnes & ornburg, LLP.

Allyn Stern is Regional Counsel for Region 10 at the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency.

Dianne Ba rton is Water Quality Coordinator at the

Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission and Chair of

the National Tribal Toxics Council.

Jennifer Wigal is Water Quality Program Manager at the

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Michael Campbell is Partner at Stoel Rives, LLP.

Fred Andes: Welcome, everyone. e water quality stan-

dards are giving rise to a number of important issues lately

that regulated parties, environmental groups, federal agen-

cies, and other stakeholders are all getting involved with,

including matters such as how water quality standards are

issued and implemented, and what the actua l water qua l-

ity standards are. ere are a number of rules and crite-

ria pending at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA), and states are working on their own standards on a

number of issues.1

Key concerns that have received a lot of attention are

pending issues regarding water quality standards for human

health, particularly based on sh consumption. e Pacic

Northwest is the center of activity on those issues. A num-

ber of the states, as well as EPA Region 10, have been work-

ing on new water quality standards, which ra ise a number

of concerns including what the appropriate sh consump-

tion rates are for use in setting standards, along with other

assumptions that relate to the overall protectiveness of the

standards and how they’ll be implemented.

at’s the subject for our Dialogue today. We’re look-

ing at the water quality standards currently pending for

human health in the Pacic Northwest, and our speakers

will be focusing on those issues. We have a great panel.

Our rst presentation ttingly is from EPA. Allyn Stern is

Regional Counsel for EPA Region 10, which includes the

Pacic Northwest states. She also teaches environmental

law at Seattle University.

Allyn Stern: ank you, ELI, for hosting this very dis-

tinguished panel of experts. I am pleased to be here. As

Fred said, there seems to be a core of activity in the Pacic

Northwest. at is going to be my focus because EPA

Region 10 covers the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washing-

ton, and Alask a. We’re going to focus on the three Pacic

Northwest states.

Participants in this Dialogue are probably at dierent

starting points, so I’ll begin with some baseline informa-

tion about water quality standards and the sh consump-

tion rate. en I’ll talk about what’s going on in the various

Region 10 states. For those of you who are less well-versed

in the subject matter, water quality standards basically have

three parts. ey are designed to protect a water body, so

the standards dene the goals for protection of the water

body. e rst part is t he designated uses. For example,

you’ll see in the Clean Water Act (CWA)2 a lot of refer-

ences to shable, swimmable. ere’s a lso recreation and

1. For more information on water quality standards for surface waters, visit

EPA’s website at http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/standards/.

2. 33 U.S.C. §§1251-1387, ELR S. FWPCA §§101-607.

Copyright © 2015 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.