Final Environmental Impact Statement Volume II Appendix K, Part 2

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COMMENTS OF U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY These standards may include a flat prohibition against discharge. These effluent standards, however, are based on treatment capabilities rather than on ambient concentrations or conditions necessary to protect aquatic life or human health. These provisions represent the technology approach to pollution control in accordance with section 101(a)(1) of the CWA, which directs that "the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters be eliminated by 1985." Section 101(a)(2) of the CWA states an interim goal, until all discharges are eliminated, of ensuring "water quality which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and provides for recreation in and on the water." The water quality component of the CWA operates under this general mandate. Section 303 establishes the specifics of the water quality standards program and directs states to adopt designated beneficial uses for all waters of the U.S., ambient water quality criteria for pollutants which provide for the protection of those uses and an antidegradation policy which requires the protection of existing water quality where it is better than required to support designated uses. Further, EPA is required under section 304(a)(1) of the CWA to develop and publish w criteria for water quality accurately reflecting the latest scientific knowledge ... on the kind and extent of all identifiable effects on health and welfare including, but not limited to, plankton, fish, shellfish, wildlife, plant life, shorelines, beaches, esthetics, and recreation which may be expected from the presence of pollutants in any body of water.... These criteria are linked directly by the CWA to the protection and maintenance of the uses designated by the state for its waters. The presumption inherent in the application of criteria is that those uses are protected when ambient water quality conditions match or are better than those criteria. EPA's guidance for water quality criteria for temperature is contained in the 1986 document entitled "Quality Criteria for Water." EPA's recommendations regarding temperature criteria are based on the protection of representative sensitive species. The state's water quality criteria for temperature and EPA's approval of those criteria are premised upon the guidance criteria issued by EPA under section 304(a). EPA approved those criteria along with the rest of the state's water quality standards regulations under authority of section 303 of the CWA. The state's water quality criteria for temperature include two components: an absolute temperature maximum necessary to support the coldwater and warmwater aquatic life uses and a RESPONSES TO U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY