EPA signs off on new Oregon water quality rules -- strictest in the nation

Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 1:23 PM     Updated: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 1:38 PM

By Scott Learn, The Oregonian

View full sizeJamie Francis, The OregonianThe Environmental Protection Agency has added the Columbia River to its list of priority great water bodies, in large part because of toxic pollution. Pollutants of concern include mercury, the now-banned pesticide DDT and fire retardants released to the river from sewage treatment plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved Oregon's new standards for toxic water pollution, the strictest in the United States.

The new standards, approved Monday by the EPA's Seattle office, are designed to protect tribal members and others who eat large amounts of contaminated fish.

Oregon's current water quality standards are built on an assumption that people eat 17.5 grams of fish a day, about a cracker's worth and typical of most states. The proposed standard boosts that to 175 grams a day, just shy of an 8-ounce meal.

The change dramatically tightens Oregon's human health criteria for a host of pollutants, including mercury, flame retardants, PCBs, dioxins, plasticizers and pesticides.

That could boost cost for industry such as paper mills and for municipal sewage treatment plants, increasing sewer rates.

It could also lower the health risks for those who eat a lot of local fish -- an estimated 100,000 Oregonians, including 20,000 children, according to a committee set up to consider the health effects of the new standard.

The Department of Environmental Quality, which will implement the new standards, has said waivers will be available for industry and treatment plants that can't meet them right away.

EPA endorsed DEQ's approach on variances, but said it will review each variance request. Polluters getting variances will also have to submit a pollution reduction plan.

DEQ has assured farmers and foresters -- and concerned legislators -- that it will continue to allow the departments of agriculture and forestry to take the lead on enforcement of water quality violations for polluted runoff from farms and forests.

The concessions worry environmental groups, who say the new rules could end up being a paper exercise.

But EPA declined to weigh in on regulation of farm and forest pollution, saying it's a state matter.

The agency also said it understands reaching the tough new standards won't happen overnight.

"The EPA understands that the implementation of these standards is on a long-term path," wrote Michael Bussell, director of the EPA's Office of Water and Watersheds in Seattle.

Processing variance requests and addressing other issues arising from the more stringent standards is "a high priority," Bussell said.

The standards take effect immediately, DEQ said, but will only be applied as water pollution permits come up for renewal.

-- Scott Learn