Great Waters Third Report to Congress

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FACT SHEET
GREAT WATERS THIRD REPORT TO CONGRESS

TODAY'S ACTION

! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing the third in a series of

Reports to Congress titled Deposition of Air Pollutants to the Great Waters. The report
discusses atmospheric deposition and its contribution to pollution in the Great Waters.

! The report provides an update based on scientific data available since publication of the
earlier Reports to Congress, in 1994 and 1997.

! The Great Waters include the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Chesapeake Bay and many
U.S. coastal estuaries.

! The report focuses on deposition of 15 pollutants of concern, which include mercury,

dioxins, furans, poly cyclic organic matter, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and several
banned or restricted pesticides, such as chlordane and DDT.

! The report also discusses the many programs EPA, states, tribes and others are

implementing to address the pollutants of concern to the Great Waters. EPA is committed
to continuing to address air deposition of pollutants into the nation's waters. Beginning
this year, the Agency will develop a detailed work plan for implementing the many related
tasks outlined in the Great Waters report; the work plan will be updated every two years.

REPORT FINDINGS

! The report issued today confirms and adds support for the findings of EPA's previous
reports to Congress on this issue.

! In addition, the report finds:

~ Several pollutants of concern continue to enter the Great Waters primarily through
atmospheric deposition. However, overall deposition rates of the 15 pollutants of
concern have declined slightly or remained constant in recent years — in large part
due to pollution-reduction efforts.

~ Concentrations of some pollutants of concern in the water, sediments, plants and
animals have declined.

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~ Concentrations of most of the pollutants still pose potential ecological and human
health risks and many of these pollutants are expected to remain in the water,
sediments, and plants and animals years after deposition declines.

~ Based on current trends, EPA expects atmospheric deposition to remain a
significant source of several pollutants of concern to the Great Waters for the
foreseeable future.

~ Recent data indicate that surface water quality guidance and criteria are being
exceeded in some of the Great Waters. However, the pollutants of concern are not
exceeding standards in place for Great Waters drinking water supplies.

~ There has been substantial progress in research activities relevant to the Great
Waters program since EPA issued the Second Report to Congress on this subject
in 1997. However, important information gaps remain, and there are critical
limitations to current atmospheric monitoring and modeling capabilities.

BACKGROUND & DEFINITIONS

! The Clean Air Act requires EPA to assess the impact of atmospheric deposition of air
toxics (and any other air pollutants of concern) on the Great Waters.

! Air toxics, also known as hazardous air pollutants, are pollutants that are known or
suspected to cause cancer or other human health problems (such as birth defects or
reproductive effects), or environmental damage.

! Atmospheric deposition occurs when pollutants fall out of the air (in the form of rain,
snow or microscopic particles, for example) and settle on land or in waterbodies. Over
time, the concentrations of persistent pollutants can accumulate and can damage
ecosystems.

! Persistent pollutants have a tendency to accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals,
and to biomagnify through the food web. When a pollutant biomagnifies, it increases in
concentration in tissues as it moves through the food chain, from algae or sediments to
shellfish to fish to fish-eating birds and mammals.

! The current list of 15 Great Waters pollutants of concern consists chiefly of air toxics.

~ The toxic pollutants of concern to the Great Waters are: mercury; cadmium and
lead (and their compounds); dioxins; furans; polycyclic organic matter;
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and the pesticides chlordane, DDT/DDE,
dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane, lindane and toxaphene.

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~ Nitrogen compounds such as nitrogen oxides and ammonia are also pollutants of
concern. In estuaries and coastal waters, excess nitrogen can cause excessive algal
growth. Over time, this excessive algal growth can contribute to reduced oxygen
levels in the water (eutrophication), which can harm fish or shellfish. Excess algae
can also decrease light available to submerged aquatic vegetation or to corals.

! EPA released the first and second Reports to Congress in 1994 and 1997. Among other
things, those reports found that:

~ Atmospheric deposition can be a significant contributor of toxic chemicals and
nitrogen compounds to the Great Waters;

~ Airborne emissions from both local and distant sources, including U.S. and foreign
sources, contribute to pollutant loadings to waters through atmospheric deposition.

~ Determining the relative contributions of local, regional, national, and global sources
of atmospheric deposition to specific waterbodies is complex, requiring careful
monitoring, modeling and other analysis.

HEAT/TH AND ENVIRONMENT

! The contribution of atmospheric deposition to overall pollutant loadings varies by
pollutant and location.

! The pollutants of concern are associated with damage to many organs in humans and
animals, including the liver, kidneys, nervous system, endocrine system, reproductive
organs and immunological system. (Research since the second report provides additional
evidence that some of the pollutants may interfere with the action of hormones in wildlife
and humans.)

! At current levels of contamination, pollutants of concern in the Great Waters pose

potentially the greatest health risks to individuals who consume fish from contaminated
waters.

~ For mercury in particular, exposures do not appear to pose a health risk to people
consuming average amounts of fish. However, sensitive groups with higher-than-
average typical fish consumption may be at risk. Those groups include young
children and pregnant women and their developing fetuses. People who eat large
amounts of fish for cultural or economic reasons are also at risk. The extent of risk
for these groups depends on the amount of fish consumed and the mercury
concentrations present in the fish.

! While a number of assessments suggest that environmental conditions in the Great Waters

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are generally improving, the current concentrations of pollutants of concern continue to
impair the ecological health of many of the Great Waters. Because of long-range
atmospheric transport and certain chemical properties, these pollutants may contribute to
ecological impairment far from known emissions sources and long after releases.

~ EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program has identified eutrophication as a major problem
affecting the overall health of the bay system, and eutrophication also affects other
important coastal estuaries. Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen compounds to
estuaries and their watersheds often accounts for a significant portion of total
nitrogen concentration in these waterbodies.

RECENT & ANTICIPATED TRENDS

! Where trends information exists, it shows that atmospheric deposition of pollutants of
concern to the Great Waters has declined or remained relatively constant in recent years.
Deposition of lead, cadmium, polycyclic organic materials, PCBs and some banned or
restricted-use pesticides has declined in the Great Lakes. Similar trends are seen in some
other Great Waters. Deposition of nitrogen in the U.S. has remained fairly constant.

! The trends estimates are uncertain because of limited monitoring capability, technological
barriers, and variable collection and analysis methods. Also, not all Great Waters
waterbodies are included for all pollutants of concern. For instance, there is only limited
trends information about the pollutants of concern in coastal estuaries other than the
Chesapeake Bay.

! Atmospheric deposition is a significant contributor of mercury to the Great Waters —

despite a downward trend of mercury emissions since 1990 (due chiefly to the phase-out
of mercury in many products). At EPA's current reference dose for mercury, levels in
some lakes and streams remain sufficiently high to pose human health and ecological risks.

! Sediment analysis in the Great Lakes region show that dioxin and furan inputs have

declined since the 1970s. Also, long-term monitoring data indicate that dioxin and furan
concentrations in plants and fish in many Great Waters have declined over time.

! EPA expects that additional reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions will result in a net
decreasing trend in nitrogen oxide emissions through 2005.

! However, both current and anticipated nitrogen deposition rates are significantly greater
than natural rates. When combined with nitrogen runoff from farms and cities, nitrogen
has the potential to overwhelm the capacities of surface waters to assimilate it.

WHAT'S BEING DONE - AND WHAT'S NEXT

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More than 60 programs now under way - from local to international levels - directly or
indirectly contribute to reducing atmospheric deposition of pollution to the Great Waters
or to understanding its effects. EPA leads or supports many of these programs, which
often use multimedia and cross-program approaches to control pollution. (The pulp and
paper "cluster" rule is one example.) Other federal agencies, state and tribal organizations,
industry groups and the Canadian government also have initiated and implemented many
important activities.

By summer 2000, EPA expects to develop a work plan to assess atmospheric deposition
on a regional basis. That work plan would include: targeting water bodies identified by
states as impaired; examining what rules or activities are in place to address impairment
caused by atmospheric deposition; and determining what, if any, additional actions are
necessary to address that impairment, EPA expects to revise the work plan every two
years, based on updated scientific information and stakeholder input.

EPA also anticipates further controlling emissions of a number of pollutants through rules
scheduled to take effect in the coming years. Those pollutants include: mercury; nitrogen
oxides; polycyclic organic materials; dioxins and furans; cadmium; lead; and
hexachl orobenzene.

In addition, actions taken to voluntarily reduce chemical use, implement pollution
prevention initiatives, advance technology, and implement pollution control laws issued by
states and other nations will further reduce pollutant loadings to the Great Waters.

EPA has developed six recommendations that will assist in meeting the objectives and
requirements of the Clean Air Act related to the Great Waters program:

•	EPA will continue to support the maintenance and expansion of efforts to monitor
Great Waters pollutants of concern in order to evaluate the relative contributions of
local, regional, and long-range transport to deposition in the U.S., as well as natural
versus human-made sources;

•	EPA will continue to develop and implement regulations and pollution prevention
programs regionally and nationally, including multimedia programs, in order to reduce
the impact of sources of Great Waters pollutants of concern within the U.S.;

•	for Great Waters pollutants emitted by sources outside the U.S., EPA will work within
international frameworks to reduce sources of these pollutants;

•	EPA will support model development and research that establish and clarify the
linkages from emissions to atmospheric deposition to waterbody loadings to adverse
public health and the environmental effects in order to enable effective risk
management decisions;

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•	EPA will encourage and support the establishment of common baselines and measures
of progress in order to better assess trends and health of Great Waters and other
waterbodies affected by atmospheric deposition; and

•	EPA will work to increase public awareness of risks of exposure to Great Waters
pollutants.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

! The full report is available on EPA's World Wide Web site at
(http: //www. epa. gov/oar/oaqp s/gr 8 water/).

! For technical questions on the report, call Gail Lacy or Dale Evarts of EPA's Office of Air
Quality Planning and Standards at (919) 541-5261 and (919) 541-5535, respectively.

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