Water Quality: Improved EPA Guidance and Support Can Help States Develop Standards That Better Target Cleanup Efforts

摘要

This report discusses the extent to which (1) states are refining designated uses when necessary and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is assisting states toward that end and (2) EPA is updating its criteria documents and assisting states in establishing criteria that can be compared with reasonably obtainable monitoring data. Included are recommendations to the Administrator of EPA to provide additional guidance regarding designated use changes to the states and regional offices that clarifies when a change is appropriate, what data are needed to justify the change, and how to establish subcategories of uses; follow through on the agency's plans to assess the feasibility of establishing a clearinghouse of approved designated use changes by 2004; set a time frame for developing and publishing nationally recommended sedimentation criteria; develop alternative, scientifically defensible monitoring strategies that states can use to determine if water bodies are meeting the criteria; and develop guidance and a training strategy that will help EPA regional staff determine the scientific defensibility of proposed criteria modifications.