EPA Issues Final Guidance on Conductivity As Tool in Assessing Coal Mining Permits

摘要

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final version July 21 of its guidance on EPA reviews of Clean Water Act permit requests for surface coal mining in Appalachia, with a conductivity benchmark retained as a central element of the guidance. Conductivity, which is used as a proxy for measuring total dissolved solids in water, is being cited by EPA as a basis to reject Clean Water Act Section 402 pollution discharge permit applications and Section 404 dredge-and-fill permit applications. EPA began using the conductivity benchmark as soon as it was spelled out in an interim guidance April 1, 2010.