Proposed Rule For Bacteria Available

["Shannon Briggs" <BRIGGSSL@michigan.gov>]

 As part of the Clean Beaches Plan, EPA has issued a proposed regulation

 to improve standards for water quality monitoring at our nation's     
 
 beaches. EPA acted to ensure that more protective health-based        
 
 standards are in place in all states and territories bordering Great  
 
 Lakes or ocean waters.                                                
 
Please visit the web link or read the press release included below:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/beaches/plan.htm#rule 


Safer Water at Nation's Beaches: New Rule to Protect Against Pathogens

Contact: Cynthia Bergman, 202-564-9828/ bergman.cynthia@epa.gov

(Washington, D.C. - July 2, 2004) As part of the Clean Beaches Plan,
EPA has issued a proposed regulation to improve standards for water
quality monitoring at our nation's beaches. EPA acted to ensure that
more protective health-based standards are in place in all states and
territories bordering Great Lakes or ocean waters.

"We are working as partners with the states and territories to promote
scientifically strong, defensible standards for coastal and Great Lakes
recreational waters," said Acting Assistant Administrator Ben Grumbles.
"States have made good progress over the last several months. We expect
this to continue, but in the meantime, we are ensuring that the public
is protected by having federal standards in place."

Of the 35 states and territories that have coastal or Great Lakes
recreational waters, ten have already adopted EPA's recommended criteria
for all their coastal recreational waters and 17 states are in the
process of adopting these criteria. Other states have adopted the
criteria for portions of their waters, while a small number have yet to
take action. EPA will exclude from the final federal regulation any
state or territory that adopts these more protective health-based
criteria. The proposal has a 30-day comment period and EPA will issue a
final standard in early Fall.

The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of
2000 requires coastal states and states bordering the Great Lakes to
adopt EPA's most current bacteria criteria by April 10, 2004 to better
protect beach goers from harmful pathogens. The Act requires EPA to
propose federal standards for the state's coastal or Great Lakes waters
for states who have failed to meet the deadline. Specifically, for these
states, EPA is proposing E. coli and enterococci criteria for their
coastal recreational waters. These bacteria do not directly cause
illness, but are good indicators of harmful pathogens in waterbodies.

The Administration's Clean Beaches Plan includes grant funding to all
BEACH Act states and territories to ensure continued monitoring of the
nation's beaches and public notification of beach closures and
advisories. These funds are designed to ensure the protection of public
health and to improve information on the quality of waters at the
nation's beaches. EPA estimates that Americans take a total of 910
million trips to coastal areas each year and spend about $44 billion at
those beach locations.

Information about the beach criteria proposal, a list of states and
their status as of July 1, 2004, and the Agency's Clean Beaches Plan is
available at: http://www.epa.gov/beaches/


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
beachnet is hosted by the Great Lakes Information Network:
http://www.great-lakes.net
To unsubscribe from this list: send mail to majordomo@great-lakes.net
with the command 'unsubscribe beachnet' in the body of your message. No
quotes or subject line are required.
About : http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/beachnet/beachnet.info
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *