x>EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water   EPA- 800-F-12-001
                                                   4305T
                                                 March  2012
    EPA  Withdraws Federal Water Quality Criteria for
             New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and California
Summary
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is proposing to amend the federal water
quality standards regulations by withdrawing (1)
all remaining federal human health and aquatic
life water quality criteria covered by the
National Toxics Rule and applicable to all
waters in New Jersey and Puerto Rico, and (2)
certain federal aquatic life criteria covered by
the National Toxics Rule and the California
Toxics Rule and applicable to the San Francisco
Bay in California. These jurisdictions have
adopted EPA-approved state criteria and
therefore no longer need such federal criteria to
meet Clean Water Act requirements.

EPA is seeking public comment on its action
with respect to those state criteria that are less
stringent than the federally promulgated criteria.
The withdrawal of the federally-issued criteria
will enable New Jersey, Puerto Rico and
California to implement their state-adopted,
EPA-approved water quality criteria.

Background
In 1992, EPA issued the National Toxics Rule to
establish numeric water quality criteria for 12
states and two territories that had failed to
comply fully with the Clean Water Act. These
included New Jersey, Puerto Rico and parts of
California. The criteria became the applicable
water quality standards in those 14 states,
effective February 5, 1993.

In 2000, EPA issued the California Toxics Rule
in order to establish numeric water quality
criteria for priority toxic pollutants for the State
of California; the criteria were not previously in
the National Toxics Rule. At that time, any
criteria promulgated as part of the National
Toxics Rule for California were included in the
criteria tables for the California Toxics Rule.
                          State Primacy
                          The water quality standards program was
                          developed with an emphasis on state primacy.
                          Although EPA promulgated toxic criteria for the
                          certain states in the National Toxics Rule and
                          California Toxics Rule, the Agency prefers that
                          states maintain primacy, revise their own
                          standards, and achieve full compliance. As
                          described in the preambles to the final National
                          Toxics Rule and California Toxics Rule, when a
                          state adopts ~ and EPA approves ~ water
                          quality criteria that meet the requirements of the
                          Clean Water Act, the Agency issues a rule
                          amending the National Toxics Rule ~ and
                          California Toxics Rule, as applicable ~ to
                          withdraw the federal criteria for that state.

                          EPA has been coordinating closely with New
                          Jersey, Puerto Rico and California on issues
                          related to implementation of the Clean Water
                          Act and EPA regulations.

                          Federal Criteria Withdrawals
                          EPA is proposing to amend the federal
                          regulations in the National Toxics Rule to
                          withdraw certain human health and aquatic life
                          criteria applicable in New Jersey and Puerto
                          Rico. The Agency does not anticipate public
                          comment on these actions because the state-
                          adopted, EPA- approved criteria are no less
                          stringent than the federally-issued criteria.

                          In addition, EPA is proposing to amend the
                          federal regulations in the National  Toxics Rule
                          and the California Toxics Rule to withdraw
                          certain human health and aquatic life criteria
                          applicable in New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and
                          California that are less stringent than the
                          federally-issued criteria. Some of these criteria
                          are the same as EPA's most recent  criteria
                          recommendations issued under the Clean Water
                          Act, while others are state-specific criteria
                          calculated using EPA-approved methods.

-------
For these withdrawals, the Agency is providing
an opportunity for public comment.

About this Rulemaking
This rulemaking will have no economic impact,
since it does not establish any requirements
directly applicable to regulated entities.

For More Information
Contact Bryan "Ibrahim" Goodwin at
goodwin.bryan@epa.gov or 202-566-0762.

-------