States Target 20-Year-Old EPA Policy To Ease Adoption Of Nutrient Limits

摘要

State water regulators are urging the agency to amend a 20-year-old policy that many critics say could force widespread and costly adoption of strict nutrient limits that EPA officials are pushing states to adopt, even in cases where waters may not show water quality impairments caused by nutrients. State representatives met with EPA officials to discuss nutrient issues Oct. 5-6, and want the agency to amend its 1991 policy dictating what is known as "independent applicability," which holds that a waterbody is considered impaired if it fails any one of three assessment methods — chemistry, toxicity testing or ecological assessment — and not only if it fails all three.