United States
Environmental Protection
\r ^1 # ^Agency
Office of Water
EPA 823-F-16-003
November 2016
Fact Sheet: Revision of Federal Human
Health Criteria Applicable to
Washington
Summary
EPA has issued a final rule that revises certain
federal human health criteria applicable to
Washington's waters and has taken concurrent
action under Clean Water Act section 303(c) on
certain human health criteria submitted to EPA by
Washington. The combination of EPA's final rule and
EPA's action on the state's submittal ensures that
criteria are set at levels that will adequately protect
Washington fish consumers from exposure to toxic
pollutants.
Background
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 101(a)(2) establishes
the national goal that water quality should provide
for the protection and propagation offish, shellfish,
and wildlife, and recreation in and on the water. To
protect people from cancer and non-cancer effects
from pollutants in drinking water and fish and
shellfish, states must establish human health criteria
for their waters that are designated for such uses.
EPA periodically publishes ambient water quality
criteria recommendations under CWA section 304(a)
for states to consider adopting into their water
quality standards to protect these uses.
CWA section 303(c)(2)(B) requires states to adopt
numeric water quality criteria for all priority toxic
pollutants for which EPA has published CWA section
304(a) criteria recommendations. In 1992, EPA
promulgated the National Toxics Rule (NTR) at 40
CFR 131.36, establishing chemical-specific numeric
criteria for 14 states and territories, including
Washington, that were not in compliance with CWA
section 303(c)(2)(B). Until issuance of this final
revised rule, the federal human health criteria in the
NTR remained applicable to Washington's waters.
EPA derived the human health criteria in the NTR
based on available national data at the time, which
indicated that people ate, on average, 6.5 grams per
day (g/day) offish. The best available data now
demonstrate that fish consumers in Washington,
including tribes with treaty-protected rights,
consume much more fish than 6.5 g/day.
Therefore, to protect fish consumers in Washington
from the adverse effects of toxic pollutants, EPA has
revised certain federal human health criteria
applicable to Washington, and taken action on
certain human health criteria submitted to EPA by
Washington.
Criteria Applicable to Washington Waters
In accordance with the requirements of CWA section
303(c)(2)(B), EPA has finalized 144 new and revised
Washington-specific human health criteria for
priority toxic pollutants, to apply to waters under
Washington's jurisdiction, and has approved 45 new
human health criteria submitted by Washington.
Given the scientific uncertainty upon which the
proposed human health criteria for arsenic, dioxin,
and thallium were based, EPA has withdrawn its
proposal of revised criteria for these three pollutants

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at this time and leaves the corresponding existing
criteria from the NTR in effect for CWA purposes.
How EPA Derived the Final Federal Criteria
EPA derives human health criteria for carcinogenic
effects using the following inputs: cancer slope
factor, cancer risk level, body weight, drinking water
intake rate, fish consumption rate (FCR), and a
bioaccumulation factor (or factors). For non-
carcinogenic and nonlinear carcinogenic effects, EPA
uses a reference dose in place of a cancer slope
factor and cancer risk level, as well as a relative
source contribution (RSC), which is intended to
ensure that an individual's total exposure from all
sources does not exceed the criteria.
To derive Washington-specific criteria, EPA used the
same cancer slope factors, cancer risk level, body
weight, drinking water intake rate, bioaccumulation
factors, and reference doses that the Agency used in
developing its CWA section 304(a) recommended
human health criteria. To protect fish consumers in
Washington, including tribes with treaty-protected
rights, EPA derived the criteria using a FCR of 175
g/day. This rate accounts for local data, reflects
input from tribes in Washington, and protects fish
consumers downstream in Oregon, where the state
has also used a FCR of 175 g/day to derive its human
health criteria. EPA made adjustments to the RSCs as
proposed, since the FCR of 175 g/day already
includes marine fish that are anadromous (e.g.,
salmon), and therefore the RSCs do not also need to
account for those marine fish. EPA therefore
adjusted the final RSC to 0.5 for each criterion based
on a proposed RSC between 0.2 and 0.5. EPA did not
adjust the RSCs for pollutants that already have
national recommended RSC values greater than or
equal to 0.5.
Fish Consumption and Tribal Reserved
Rights
When setting criteria to protect human health in
Washington, EPA considered the requirements in the
CWA and EPA's regulations at 40 CFR 131, as well as
other applicable laws, including federal treaties. In
Washington, many tribes hold reserved rights to
take fish for subsistence, ceremonial, religious, and
commercial purposes, including treaty-reserved
rights to fish at all usual and accustomed fishing
grounds and stations in waters under state
jurisdiction. A majority of waters under
Washington's jurisdiction are covered by these
reserved rights. EPA's final rule considers the tribal
population exercising their reserved fishing rights in
Washington as the target population for the
purposes of deriving protective criteria that allow
the tribes to harvest and consume fish consistent
with their reserved rights.
How EPA's Final Rule Relates to the State of
Washington's Submittal of Human Health
Criteria and Implementation Tools to EPA
On August 1, 2016, Washington submitted revised
human health criteria to EPA that take into account
more recent regional and local fish consumption
data, and some updates to the toxicity and exposure
parameters used to calculate human health criteria.
Concurrent with the final rule, EPA has taken action
to approve in part, and disapprove in part, the
human health criteria submitted by Washington. In
the federal rule, EPA is not finalizing criteria for
those state-adopted criteria that EPA approved and
is withdrawing Washington from the NTR for those
approved state-adopted criteria. Together, EPA's
final rule and EPA's action on the state's submittal
ensures that criteria are set at levels that will
adequately protect fish consumers in Washington
from exposure to toxic pollutants.
Where can I find more information?
Contact Erica Fleisig at (202) 566-1057,
fleisig.erica@epa.gov or Matthew Szelag at (907)
271-1208, szelag.matthew@epa.gov. To access the
final rule, federal register notice, and supporting
documents, visit EPA's Water Quality Standards
website at:
https://www.epa.gov/wqs-tech/water-quality-
standards-regulations-washington#fed

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