New USEPA water quality criteria by 2012: GOMA concerns and recommendations

Abstract

The Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) was tasked by the five Gulf State Governors to identify major issues affecting the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and to set priorities for ameliorating these problems. One priority identified by GOMA is the need to improve detection methods for water quality indicators, pathogens and microbial source tracking. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is tasked with revising water quality criteria by 2012; however, the locations traditionally studied by the USEPA are not representative of the GoM and this has raised concern about whether or not the new criteria will be appropriate. This paper outlines a number of concerns, including deadlines associated with the USEPA Consent Decree, which may prevent inclusion of research needed to produce a well-developed set of methods and criteria appropriate for all regulated waters.GOMA makes several recommendations including ensuring that criteria formulation use data that include GoM-specific conditions (e.g. lower bather density, nonpoint sources), that rapid-testing methods be feasible and adequately controlled, and that USEPA maintains investments in water quality research once the new criteria are promulgated in order to assure that outstanding scientific questions are addressed and that scientifically defensible criteria are achieved for the GoM and other regulated waterbodies.

Beach sand and the potential for infectious disease transmission: observations and recommendations

“…The Annapolis Protocol first identified the value of a comprehensive sanitary inspection of recreational waters to identify all sources of potential pathogens, a concept further developed over the past decade (Boehm et al, 2009a;Gooch-Moore et al, 2011;Abdelzaher et al, 2013). The Annapolis Protocol introduced the concept of a risk-based approach, and acknowledged that common FIO standards across all waters did not account for the unequal probability of pathogen presence in faecal contamination from different sources.…”

“…The sole reliance on FIO levels in water as a mechanism for classifying recreational waters was challenged by the Annapolis Protocol, a document prepared for the World Health Organization and authored by many of the acknowledged world experts in the field (WHO, 1999), well over a decade ago. The Annapolis Protocol first identified the value of a comprehensive sanitary inspection of recreational waters to identify all sources of potential pathogens, a concept further developed over the past decade (Boehm et al ., 2009a; Gooch-Moore et al ., 2011; Abdelzaher et al ., 2013). The Annapolis Protocol introduced the concept of a risk-based approach, and acknowledged that common FIO standards across all waters did not account for the unequal probability of pathogen presence in faecal contamination from different sources.…”

U.S. Recreational Water Quality Criteria: A Vision for the Future

“…Since 60%–80% of the impaired waters in the US, are due to non-point sources of FIB [ 23 , 24 , 25 ], these results indicate that the health effects predicted by the 2012 RWQC will not be applicable to the majority of the recreational water sites in the US. In this regard, Gooch-Moore et al [ 26 ] reported their concern that the 2012 RWQC may not be applicable to beaches in the Gulf of Mexico, where non-point sources of FIB and environmental conditions differ from those beaches that were selected for the development of the 2012 RWQC.…”

Molecular tools for bathing water assessment in Europe: Balancing social science research with a rapidly developing environmental science evidence-base

“…The USA has begun to utilize qPCR methods at some recreational beaches on a voluntary basis. This was prompted by a lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed by the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and others which argued that USEPA had not delivered on its intention to explore new or revised water-quality criteria linked to rapid test methods (Gooch-Moore et al 2011 ). In response, the USEPA published the 2012 revised Recreational Water Quality Criteria (RWQC) for FIOs in marine and fresh waters (U.S. EPA 2012 ); within these criteria there are regulatory action thresholds for enterococci as determined by qPCR.…”