Arkansas Urges EPA To Allow Water Mineral Values As Guide, Not Limits

摘要

Arkansas is urging EPA to say the state's novel "ecoregion" water quality values for minerals should only be used as a non-binding guide on whether to set site-specific mineral limits on waterbodies - an approach that could potentially prompt interest from other states - rather than EPA's preference to use the values as enforceable limits. "We're working with EPA right now on this issue," Ryan Benefield, interim director for Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), said during a Nov. 4 interview with Inside EPA. But EPA has increasingly "been asking us to apply them [the minerals values] like standards," in Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permits and impairment listings under section 303(d), said Benefield. This leaves permitted entities struggling to meet effluent limits in their National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and in DEQ's 2010, 2011, and 2012 CWA 303(d) listings stalled over agency concerns, he added. The department has historically considered its so-called ecoregion values guidelines for determining whether to craft site-specific values for a stream or to trigger additional studies of impaired waters.