EDITOR’S NOTE This has been corrected to show that the new cancer risk standard in the proposed rule would be one in one hundred thousand people.
OLYMPIA — The state Department of Ecology has released a preliminary draft rule on water quality standards for toxic chemicals that includes greatly increased fish consumption rates.
The preliminary draft rule also raises the allowable cancer risk, but that would not permit greater pollution than is allowed now, said Kelly Susewind, special assistant to the director.
That’s in line with a July 9 directive from Gov. Jay Inslee, directing that no standard would allow more pollution than today’s standard, except arsenic that occurs naturally, officials said.
“Your real risk will go down by this rule,” Susewind said.
The new standards for 96 chemicals would be used in permitting for municipalities and industry.
They are “a measure of how clean water bodies have to be,” Susewind said.
“The real pinch point is that when anybody discharges into a water body, we have to see that their discharge maintains compliance with these standards,” he added.
Because this is a preliminary draft rule package, Ecology is not seeking formal comment now.
The department will seek public comment after issuing the formal draft rule in January.
Fish consumption
Ecology’s preliminary draft rule would increase the fish consumption rate from 6.5 grams a day (about one serving a month) to 175 grams a day (about one serving a day).
The lower rate is from a federal rule that dates back to 1992 and which is now out of date, said Sandy Howard, department spokesman.
The old rate “is not accurate based on recent surveys of fish that Washitonians eat,” Howard said.
The new rate “is based on data we have that tells us people are eating a lot more fish and shellfish than we have previously thought,” she added.
“We’re trying to make it more protective for people who eat fish and balance it so it doesn’t hurt our economy,” Howard said.
By itself, the fish consumption rate would mean that water must be cleaner than it is now.
“By going to a higher fish consumption rate, we have more stringent standards,” Susewind said.
But that rate is only one part of a complex set of equations used to calculate the standard for each chemical.
Included in the equation are fish consumption rates, average body mass and drinking water ingestion rate by people, bioconcentration factors for each chemical, toxicity of each chemical and cancer risk, Susewind said.
Cancer risk
The allowable cancer risk is raised from one person in one million to one person in one hundred thousand.
The cancer risk” alone “would drive you to a more lenient standard,” Susewind said.
However, if the final determination allows more pollution than is permitted now, then it will not be used, and allowable levels will remain where they are now, he said.
Said Ecology Director Maia Bellon: “We’ve heard a lot of concerns that we are allowing a higher input risk rate for cancer. We recognize that it’s confusing, but the actual risk is not higher.
“What matters to people and fish is not the formula but the outcome — it’s less about the complex formula going into the standard and more about the level of pollution coming out of the pipe, Bellon said.
“And the end result is that most standards are more protective and, with the one exception of naturally occurring arsenic, no standard is less protective than today.”
Inslee said that most concerns about toxics “come not from big pipes but from the every-day chemicals in our environment.
“We are working with business, local government, and tribes on a proposal to prevent the use of largely unregulated toxic chemicals the Clean Water Act cannot address,” he added.
Ecology’s preliminary economic analysis shows the new water quality standards would create minimal costs to industries and local governments that discharge waste water, officfials said.
The proposal means that industries or local government entities would not be required to clean up pollution that they didn’t cause and could meet new standards over a period of time, officials said.
For details about the preliminary draft rule, see http://tinyurl.com/PDN-waterstandardsrule
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
