[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 245 (Wednesday, December 21, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79176-79177]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-32651]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-OW-2011-0466; FRL-9609-3]
Notice of Availability of Draft Recreational Water Quality
Criteria and Request for Scientific Views
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of
the draft document Recreational Water Quality Criteria (RWQC). The
document contains the EPA's draft ambient water quality criteria
recommendations for protecting human health in ambient waters that are
designated for primary contact recreation. CWA Section 304(c) water
quality criteria recommendations are intended as guidance to States and
authorized Tribes in developing water quality standards. The draft RWQC
document describes the relevant scientific findings, explains how these
findings were used to derive criteria, and lists the water quality
methods associated with the criteria.
The draft RWQC differs from the current 1986 RWQC in the following
ways: the EPA introduces a new term, Statistical Threshold Value (STV),
as a clarification and replacement for the term single sample maximum
(SSM); there are no longer recommendations for different criteria
values for beaches used with more or less frequency; the EPA introduces
a rapid analytical technique for the detection of enterococci in
recreational water; the EPA provides information on tools for assessing
and managing recreational waters, such as predictive modeling, and for
developing site-specific criteria.
The CWA, as amended by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and
Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000, requires the EPA to conduct studies
associated with pathogens and human health under Section 104(v), and to
publish new or revised criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators
based on those studies under Section 304(a)(9). The draft criteria
announced today for scientific views are the draft new or revised
criteria that EPA is required to publish under Section 304(a)(9) of the
CWA, as amended by the BEACH Act.
DATES: Scientific views must be received on or before February 21,
2012. Comments postmarked after this date may not be considered.
ADDRESSES: Submit your scientific views, identified by Docket ID No.
EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0466, and obtain the document (EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0466-0002)
by one of the following methods:
www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
Email: OW-Docket@epa.gov.
Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; EPA Docket
Center (EPA/DC) Water Docket, MC 28221T; 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20460.
Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave.
NW., EPA West, Room 3334, Washington, DC. Such deliveries are only
accepted during the Docket's normal hours of operation, and special
arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2011-
0466. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided,
unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to
be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or email. The
www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, which
means the EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless
you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email
comment directly to the EPA without going through www.regulations.gov
your email address will be automatically captured and included as part
of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available
on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, the EPA
recommends that you include your name and other contact information in
the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If the
EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot
contact you for clarification, the EPA may not be able to consider your
comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters,
any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. For
additional information about the EPA's public docket visit the EPA
Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Office of Water Docket/
EPA/DC, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., EPA West, Room 3334, Washington,
DC. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., EST,
Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number
for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number
for the Office of Water Docket is (202) 566-2426.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions concerning the science
supporting this criteria, contact Sharon Nappier, Health and Ecological
Criteria Division (4304T), nappier.sharon@epa.gov, U.S. EPA, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460; (202) 566-0740. For
questions concerning the use of EPA's criteria recommendations, contact
Tracy Bone, Standards and Health Protection Division (4305T),
bone.tracy@epa.gov, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington,
DC 20460; (202) 564-5257.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. What are Section 304(a) water quality criteria?
Section 304(a) water quality criteria are recommendations developed
by EPA under authority of section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act based
on the latest scientific information on the relationship that the
effect of a constituent concentration has on particular aquatic species
and/or human health.
[[Page 79177]]
Section 304(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act requires the EPA to
develop and publish and, from time to time, revise, criteria for water
quality accurately reflecting the latest scientific knowledge. Water
quality criteria developed under section 304(a) are based solely on
data and scientific judgments on the relationship between pollutant
concentrations and environmental and human health effects. Section
304(a) criteria do not reflect consideration of economic impacts or the
technological feasibility of meeting pollutant concentrations in
ambient water.
Section 304(a) criteria provide guidance to States and authorized
Tribes in adopting water quality standards that ultimately provide a
basis for controlling discharges or releases of pollutants. The
criteria also provide guidance to the EPA when promulgating federal
regulations under section 303(c) when such action is necessary. Under
the CWA and its implementing regulations, States and authorized Tribes
are to adopt water quality criteria to protect designated uses (e.g.,
aquatic life, recreational use). The EPA's water quality criteria
recommendations are not regulations. Thus, the EPA's recommended
criteria do not constitute legally binding requirements. States and
authorized Tribes may adopt other scientifically defensible water
quality criteria that differ from these recommendations. When adopting
new or revised water quality standards, the States and authorized
Tribes must adopt criteria that are scientifically defensible and
protective of the designated uses of the bodies of water. States have
the flexibility to do this by adopting criteria based on (1) EPA's
recommended criteria, (2) EPA's criteria modified to reflect site-
specific conditions, or (3) other scientifically defensible methods.
II. What are the recreational water quality criteria recommendations?
The EPA is today publishing the draft Recreational Water Quality
Criteria (EPA-OW-2011-0466-0002) recommendations for protecting human
health. The EPA evaluated the available data and determined that the
designated use of primary contact recreation would be protected if the
following criteria were adopted into water quality standards:
(a) Fresh Water Criteria
Magnitude: Culturable E. coli at a geometric mean (GM) of 126
colony forming units (cfu) per 100 milliliters (mL) and a statistical
threshold value (STV) of 235 cfu per 100 mL measured using EPA Method
1603, or any other equivalent method that measures culturable E. coli;
culturable enterococci at a GM of 33 cfu per 100 mL and an STV of 61
cfu per 100 mL measured using EPA Method 1600, or any other equivalent
method that measures culturable enterococci; or both of the above
criteria.
Duration: For calculating the GM and associated STV, EPA recommends
a duration between 30 days and 90 days. The duration for calculating
the GM and associated STV should not exceed 90 days. The duration is a
component of a water quality criterion, and as such, would need to be
explicitly included in the State's WQS. The recreational season may
vary by location depending on the length of the beach season. Sampling
of waterbodies should be representative of meteorological conditions
(e.g., wet and dry weather) for the recreational season.
Frequency: EPA recommends a frequency of zero exceedances of the GM
and <= 25 percent exceedance of the STV, during the recreation duration
specified. The frequency of exceedance is a component of a water
quality criterion, and as such, would need to be explicitly included in
State's water quality standard (WQS).
(b) Marine Criteria
Magnitude: Culturable enterococci at a GM of 35 cfu per 100 mL and
an STV of 104 cfu per 100 mL measured using EPA Method 1600, or any
other equivalent method that measures culturable enterococci.
Duration: For calculating the GM and associated STV, EPA recommends
a duration between 30 days and 90 days. The duration for calculating
the GM and associated STV should not exceed 90 days. The duration is a
component of a water quality criterion, and as such, would need to be
explicitly included in the State's WQS. The recreational season may
vary by location depending on the length of the beach season. Sampling
of waterbodies should be representative of meteorological conditions
(e.g., wet and dry weather) for the recreational season.
Frequency: EPA recommends a frequency of zero exceedances of the GM
and <= 25 percent exceedance of the STV, during the recreation duration
specified. The frequency of exceedance is a component of a water
quality criterion, and as such, would need to be explicitly included in
State's WQS.
EPA has also developed a quantitative polymerase chain reaction
(qPCR) method to detect and quantify enterococci more rapidly than the
culture method. For the purposes of beach monitoring, alternative site-
specific criteria could be adopted into State standards measured by
EPA's Enterococcus qPCR method A based on a site-specific performance
characterization. For States interested in adopting a value for
enterococci using EPA's Enterococcus qPCR method A into their WQS, EPA
recommends a GM criterion of 475 calibrator cell equivalent (CCE) per
100 mL and an STV criterion of 1,000 CCE per 100 mL in freshwaters and
marine waters based on its epidemiological study data.
Dated: December 15, 2011.
Nancy K. Stoner,
Acting Assistant Administrator for Water.
[FR Doc. 2011-32651 Filed 12-20-11; 8:45 am]
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