EPA Lakes Criteria Marks Scientific Advancement For Nutrient Limits

摘要

EPA's recently finalized water quality criteria for nutrients in lakes and reservoirs marks a significant scientific advancement from the agency's previous approach and takes advantage of years of statistically significant data to link the cause and effect of nutrient pollution, former agency officials say. The criteria, released Aug. 13, "mark an important milestone in EPA's long-running war on excess nutrients in the nation's surface waters" by embracing a stressor-response approach to managing nutrients rather than the least-disturbed reference method previously used, Troutman Pepper attorneys Anna Wildeman and Dave Ross write in a recent blog post about the criteria. "This is a significant move for the agency and has the potential to set a positive precedent going forward for EPA and state and tribal regulators to re-evaluate the utility of the reference method approach in other contexts, write Wildeman and Ross, who both led the Office of Water during the Trump administration.