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The Honorable Gina McCarthy 

Administrator 

July 26, 2013 

United States Environmental Protection Agency 

Ariel Rios Building 

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. 

Washington, DC 20460 

Dear Administrator McCarthy, 

We appreciate the importance of ensuring the safety of the fish consumed in Washington, 

Oregon and Idaho, and are aware of efforts underway by the state agencies in Washington and 

Idaho to develop protective Clean Water Act (CWA) human health water quality criteria 

(HHWQC). However, we are concerned that EPA's interference in those processes will prevent 

the agencies from developing criteria that properly balance protections of public health and 

achievable CW A permit limits by facilities that must abide by them in these states. This balance 

is critical to ensure clean water and to protect people as well as jobs and the economy. 

Under the CWA, states have the primary responsibility to develop water quality standards to 

protect human health. Specifically, CWA Section 303(c)(4)(B) directs that, " ... State[s] shall 

adopt criteria for all toxic pollutants listed pursuant to section 307(a)(l) of this Act for which 

criteria have been published under Section 304(a), the discharge or presence of which in the 

affected waters could reasonably be expected to interfere with those designated uses adopted 

by the State, as necessary to support such designated uses." EPA's role in reviewing and 

approving HHWQC (a component of the state standard) is to ensure that the final standard is 

adequately protective of fish consumers. We believe that EPA is overstating its authority by 

dictating that states use overly conservative input values and risk levels in the already 

extremely conservative and protective formula for deriving criteria, for example, by requiring 

a very high Fish Consumption Rate (FCR). 

In a June 21,2013 letter from the EPA to the Washington Department ofEcology, EPA 

Region 1 0 Administrator McLerran threatens to issue a federal rule if Washington's process is 

"unnecessarily delayed. " The letter states that EPA expects Washington to adopt the same 

high FCR and risk levels as were adopted in Oregon. 

The Oregon standards, adopted in 20 11, are expected to result in numerous new impaired 

waters listings, TMDLs, and CWA permit limits that cannot be met with existing technology. 

Indeed, some limits would require facilities' discharges to be cleaner than the background 

water they take in. Administrator McLerran's letter also references EPA's actions in Idaho, 
where EPA rejected Idaho's human health water quality standards, again citing concerns about 

the FCR used by the state. 

Washington is undertaking a high-level stakeholder process to bring parties to the table in an 

attempt to strike a reasonable balance with the updated HHWQC. Idaho is moving forward 

with processes to accomplish the same goal, including a statewide general population FCR 

survey. This information will serve as the basis for developing more scientifically defensible 

and data-based HHWQC and also allow the states to use a probabilistic approach in their 

criteria development. 

This approach, using peer reviewed science, better characterizes risk and provides an 

opportunity to develop balanced, defensible standards that are both feasible for CWA 

permittees to achieve, and be protective of human health for all fish consumers, including those 

consuming high levels. 

States need to be allowed to complete their work of developing protective and achievable 

HHWQC, without dictating particular input values. EPA should let the states make the 

appropriate, individual policy choices, not attempt to dictate them in a less than transparent 

manner. We would request a response on how EPA will remedy this process as soon as possible 

to allow states to proceed without interference. 

If you have any questions, please contact Todd Ungerecht of Rep. Hastings' staff at (202) 225-

2761 or Missy Small of Rep. Simpson's staff at (202) 225-5531. 

Mike Simpson 

Member of Congress 

Raul Labrador 

Member of Congress 

Sincerely, 

Jaime Herrera Beutler 

Member of Congress