2022-06879: Restoring Protective Human Health Criteria in Washington
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that Washington's human health criteria (HHC) are not protective of Washington's designated uses and are not based on sound scientific rationale and, accordingly, is proposing to restore protective HHC for Washington's waters. EPA partially approved and partially disapproved Washington's HHC in November 2016, and simultaneously promulgated federal HHC based on sound scientific rationale. In May 2019, EPA reversed its November 2016 disapproval and approved Washington's HHC, and in June 2020 withdrew the 2016 HHC that EPA promulgated for Washington. Based on the best scientific information and analyses currently available, and consideration of these past decisions, EPA has concluded that Washington's existing HHC are not based on sound scientific rationale and are therefore not protective of the applicable designated uses in Washington. EPA is therefore proposing to reinstate the protective and science-based federal HHC that EPA withdrew in June 2020 to protect Washington's waters, including waters where tribes hold treaty-reserved rights to fish.
The agency’s own summary, as published.
What this changes
Amends 1 part of the Code of Federal Regulations — the standing rules this notice rewrites.
Rulemaking docket
We haven’t pulled this rulemaking’s full docket yet. View docket EPA-HQ-OW-2015-0174 on Regulations.gov →
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