EPA Approves Some State Water Quality Rules, But Not All

Almost three years after the state of Arkansas submitted regulations from its Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for review, the U.S. EPA has approved some, but not all, of it.

Arkansas Online reported that the announcement comes as the DEQ prepares for another review process next year and “is in the middle of a public stakeholder process of reviewing and potentially revising the water quality assessment methods it uses to determine whether a waterbody is ‘impaired.’"

Among the aspects that have been approved by the EPA are “the numeric nutrient standards in Arkansas” that includes two standards for Beaver Lake that water district officials said would assist the district in protecting the drinking water for Northwest Arkansas.

The EPA did not disagree with the standards, but put them “on hold while the EPA and the state Department of Environmental Quality debated other elements of the state's water regulations during the EPA's review.”

Most of Arkansas’s other water regulation changes were approved, however, some of the details of the water quality standards approved by the agency have yet to be reviewed under the Federal Endangered Species Act.

Among the parts that were not approved were two items that had been rejected before by the agency, regarding mineral concentrations in Flat Creek and better ways to determine how clean the state’s water is.

According to Arkansas Online, Arkansas regulations previously “outlined standards for allowable minerals levels in water bodies that covered the state by ecoregions.”

Two years ago, the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission approved changing the state standards in order “to treat those standards as guidelines, rather than requirements.” The change came after the DEQ recommended it, after a series of working groups were conducted to revise the state's water quality standards.

The EPA rejected that change and argued “that it stripped water bodies of protective standards.”

Last month, the EPA wrote in a 183-page review of Arkansas water quality standards that it would take no action, stating that it "also recognizes the current state of the science and that the agency's own efforts related to the development of recommended minerals criteria are ongoing."

Arkansas Online reported that the EPA asked that the DEQ develop a way “to adopt new standards within the next 12 months, also outlining interim goals leading up to the eventual adoption of the new standards.”

On November 15, The Columbian reported that the EPA finalized water quality rules for Washington state “tied partly to how much fish people eat, approving some aspects of the state’s plan but deciding in many cases to set stricter limits than the state had wanted.”

Both local governments and businesses have argued that too many strict rules could cost too much money with little benefit to the environment.