The Association submitted comments on March 20 to EPA’s recent Request for Scientific Views for establishing Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria and/or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin.

The comments addressed the importance and need to protect human health from potential recreational exposure to toxic cyanobacterial blooms, as well as recognize that harmful algal blooms have the potential to be a public health issue and can also have negative economic impacts.

However, NACWA asserted that the municipal clean water community will face considerable implementation challenges if these numeric criteria values are adopted as ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) and subsequently used as the basis for wastewater treatment permit limits that may not result in reduction of risk to human health or improve water quality. Therefore, the Association recommended that EPA not finalize the AWQC for microcystins and cylindrospermopsin but should rather move forward with swimming advisory values for states to consider as a mechanism for notification purposes to protect public health.

If members have any questions or comments, please contact Emily Remmel.