WaterNews for March 19, 1998

WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice on March 13, 1998 regarding its decision that Section 112 of the existing Clean Air Act (CAA) provides the Agency sufficient legal authority to protect public health and the environment from air toxics falling into the "Great Waters," including the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Chesapeake Bay and many U.S. coastal waters. The Agency believes any further legislative action is unnecessary at this time. Air toxics, also known as hazardous air pollutants, are known or suspected to cause cancer and/or other serious health effects, such as birth defects or reproductive effects. While significant progress has already been made in reducing air toxics affecting these water bodies, EPA will continue developing regulations and other environmental programs to achieve even further emission reductions.

EPA is developing air toxic emission standards utilizing maximum achievable pollution control technology for over 170 different types of industry; many of these regulations have already been issued, and all should be completed by the end of the year 2000. Examples include rules that will cut a wide variety of toxic emissions by 90 percent from the chemical industry; slash mercury emissions 90 percent and dioxin levels 99 percent from municipal waste combustors; and significantly reduce mercury (95 percent) and dioxin (94 percent) from medical waste incinerators. Nitrogen compounds such as nitrogen oxide (NOx) are also deposited into water but are not classified as toxics. Overly abundant nitrogen can cause excessive growth of algae, which can harm fish and shellfish and reduce light available to aquatic vegetation and coral reefs. EPA's acid rain program, is making considerable progress in achieving its goal of reducing NOx emissions two million tons from 1980 levels by the year 2000, and the Agency's new ozone and particulate standards will also reduce nitrogen deposition to water bodies.

For Further Information

The Federal Register notice can be downloaded from EPA over the Internet under Recent Actions at the following address: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg. The notice is also available through EPA's Air and Radiation Docket and Information Center (Docket Number A-97-21) by calling (202) 260-7548 or -7549 or FAX (202) 260-4000 (a reasonable fee may be charged for copying). For technical questions about this action, please contact Dale Evarts at (919) 541-5535.

A copy of EPA's June 1997 report to Congress on Deposition of Air Pollutants to the Great Waters can is available on the Internet at the following URL: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t3rc.html. A hard copy of the report can be obtained, supplies permitting, from the Library Services Offices (MD-35), US EPA, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711.

Further information is available from EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment about EPA activities related to risk analysis of human health and ecological effects including information about pollutants of concern to the Great Waters. This web site also provides information about and access to EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). The URL is http://www.epa.gov/ncea/.

EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office can provide information about the Binational Toxics Strategy, monitoring and cleanup activities, and other information related to Great Lakes ecosystem protection. The URL is http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/.

The Clean Water Action Plan is available on the Internet at http://www.cleanwater.gov/.

EPA's Office of Air and Radiation's home page includes a wide range of information on the air toxics program, as well as many other air pollution programs and issues: http://www.epa.gov/oar/.

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