When regulating water within their authority, States should be allowed to take into account the presence of naturally occurring pollutants, the sensitivity of indigenous species, and the social and economic impacts of setting water quality standards, all from an informed, local perspective. Dischargers should be allowed to select the most cost-effective and innovative approach, whether by process change or waste treatment. Any reauthorization of the Clean Water Act should also provide flexibility with respect to intake credits, risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis, and other means of eliminating redundant treatment requirements. Promulgation of water quality standards and the criteria on which they are based need to take into account relevant risks associated with regulatory options. This emphasis needs to be borne in mind as the Environmental Protection Agency considers revisions to the iron and steel industry effluent limitation guidelines.
Water is essential for the production of steel.
Because of the industry's reliance on water, most steel plants are located on or near bodies of water. Next to iron and energy, water is the industry's most important commodity. Water is important not only because it is a means of transportation of raw material and steel products, but also because it is an integral part of the steelmaking process. Water is used to cool equipment, furnaces, and intermediate steel shapes, to remove scale from steel products, as a source of steam, as a medium for lubricating oils and cleaning solutions, and in wet scrubbers for air pollution control. Steel cleans and recycles its water.