I spent much of this morning listening in on the Department of Ecology’s latest Delegates’ Table meeting regarding the ongoing efforts to revise Washington’s Water Quality Standards to account for higher fish consumption rates. The meeting included an update on where Ecology is in the process, Ecology’s current thinking on where the rule making may be going, and a discussion of feedback provided by stakeholders. Here are some of the discussion points I highlighted in my notes:
Ecology is still expecting a draft of the rule to be circulated in March, with the possibility of an additional delegate meeting between now and then. That rule is anticipated to include both draft Human Health Criteria and Implementation Tools. There was some discussion at today’s meeting about whether these two components would be done at the same time or as separate rules, and Ecology provided clarification that it intends to do both components in one rulemaking process.
When Ecology last held a public meeting on the subject (on November 6, 2013), Ecology provided some chemical-specific scenarios for arsenic, PCBs, and mercury that may be carried forward in the rule making. Today, Ecology provided some direction on where it may go with the rule for the following substances (the entire presentation from today is available here). Those specific toxics present unique challenges–you can review current thinking on them starting on page four of the presentation. I noted a few interesting points…