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Recreational Water Quality Criteria
Designed to protect swimmers from illnesses due to exposure to pathogens in recreational waters, the existing criteria are more than 20 years old. Since then, scientists have learned much about molecular biology, virology, and analytical chemistry. This new information will help us build a stronger scientific foundation for up-to-date recreational water quality criteria.
Research and Science Plans
EPA's March 2007 Experts Scientific Workshop was a forum for discussion of critical research and science needs for developing new or revised recreational ambient water quality criteria in the near-term. The Report of the Experts Scientific Workshop (EPA 823-R-07-006) summarizes the discussion of the scientific and technical panels.
The Critical Path Science Plan (August 2007) describes the high priority research and science that EPA intends to conduct to establish the scientific foundation for the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria recommendations. The Criteria Development Plan (August 2007) describes the process and timeline EPA intends to follow to develop and publish new or revised water quality criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators.
Stakeholder Engagement
At a multi-stakeholder meeting in February 2008, we updated stakeholders on our activities.
EPA conducted a multi-stakeholder meeting in October 2009 to provide a forum for interested stakeholders to provide input and to bring issues to EPA on the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria.
Settlement Agreement and Consent Decree
In August 2008, EPA and the plaintiffs reached a settlement on a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court for the Central District of California against EPA regarding EPA's failure to have met statutory deadlines in the Clean Water Act, as amended by the BEACH ACT, to conduct studies on pathogens and pathogen indicators in coastal recreational waters and publish water quality criteria recommendations based on those studies.
Documents and Announcements
In April 2009, EPA announced the selection of sites for EPA conducted health studies to support development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria. These studies along with other research activities will allow EPA to build a strong scientific foundation for up-to-date recreational water criteria.
EPA conducted literature reviews to help inform criteria development (February 2009):
Review of Published Studies to Characterize Relative Risks From Different Sources of Fecal Contamination in Recreational Waters (PDF) (103 pp, 1.5MB, About PDF)
This review describes the existing knowledgebase available to characterize the relative risks of human illness from various sources of fecal contamination in recreational waters.Review of Zoonotic Pathogens in Ambient Waters (PDF) (109 pp, 2.4MB, About PDF)
This review provides a summary of information on waterborne zoonotic pathogens that come primarily from warm-blooded animals.
In February 2009, an Experts Scientific Workshop on Inland Waters was hosted by WERF and supported by EPA in order to obtain expert input on research and analyses that can be initiated and completed by December 2010 to support the applicability of EPA's new recreational criteria to flowing fresh waters and lakes; and what longer-term research should be pursued to gain a better understanding of the health risks from recreating in inland waters as compared to marine coastal or Great Lakes waters. WERF has published a report that summarizes the proceedings and findings: Report on the Experts Scientific Workshop on Critical Research and Science Needs for the Development of Recreational Water Quality Criteria for Inland Waters. 