NWEA spent the last two and a half years working through Oregon’s advisory committees to upgrade its water quality criteria for the protection of human health from toxic pollutants. Recently we submitted comments to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). In the comments, we supported DEQ’s long overdue update to the criteria and sharply criticized DEQ’s proposals to relieve permitted sources from having to meet the criteria as inconsistent with the federal Clean Water Act and poor public policy choices.
NWEA Comments on Oregon’s Proposed Toxic Criteria and New Loopholes
April 5, 2011 | Advocacy, Antidegradation, Arsenic, Clean Water Act, Comments, Copper, OR Copper, OR NPDES, OR WQS, Oregon, Toxics, Variances, Water Quality Standards