Director’s Dialogue Draft

EQC June 19-20, 2013

Initiation of Corrections and Clarifications to Toxics Water Quality Standards Rulemaking

DEQ has re-started a rulemaking to correct a number of errors related to the toxics water quality standards regulations. In January, DEQ delayed this rulemaking because stakeholders expressed concern about the timing of the rulemaking, and other actions related to unresolved water quality standards issues.

There are two meetings scheduled with the Advisory Committee in June and July.  We anticipate that the revised rules will be published for public comment in September and be proposed for Commission adoption in December.

DEQ is conducting this rulemaking in response to EPA’s Jan. 31, 2013 action disapproving a number of Oregon’s toxics criteria to protect aquatic life that DEQ submitted to EPA in 2004.  Some of the disapproval actions resulted from errors or lack of clarification, while other disapproved criteria are more substantive in nature.  The objective of this rulemaking is to correct some of the disapproved criteria where the remedies are more straight-forward (e.g. correction of 11 pesticides and selenium criteria). DEQ also anticipates correcting typographical errors associated with the Human Health Toxics Rulemaking (adopted in 2011) and will also propose to consolidate the aquatic life toxics criteria into one table to address confusion that has arisen from the toxics criteria currently being distributed among three tables. 

EPA also disapproved several toxics criteria where the remedies to correct the disapprovals are more complex and will involve deeper and more thoughtful discussions among DEQ, EPA, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and stakeholders (i.e., revisions to address the aluminum, ammonia, copper, and cadmium criteria disapprovals).  Rulemaking for the more complex issues will occur after this corrections rulemaking.  DEQ is initiating the corrections and clarifications rulemaking to ensure that these straight-forward corrections are completed in a timely manner, and are not unnecessarily delayed by the more substantive issues DEQ anticipates arising from the other disapproved criteria.