Regulacje i polityka gospodarcza · 29.11.2012

2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria

Pursuant to section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of the 2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria (RWQC). The document contains the EPA's recreational water quality criteria recommendations for protecting human health in ambient waters that are designated for primary contact recreation. CWA Section 304(a) water quality criteria recommendations are intended as guidance to States and authorized Tribes in developing water quality standards. The 2012 RWQC document describes the relevant scientific findings, explains how these findings were used to derive criteria for two indicators of fecal contamination (enterrococcus and E. coli) as measured by culture based test methods. On December 21, 2011, EPA made available draft national recommended recreational water quality criteria (2011 Draft RWQC) and provided the public an opportunity to provide scientific views. The 2012 RWQC differs from the current 1986 Ambient Water Quality Criteria in the following ways: the EPA recommends States use one of two sets of criteria values, and no longer recommends multiple "use intensity" values; the RWQC consist of both a ge