Recreational Water Quality Criteria

EPA's March 2007 Experts Scientific Workshop was a forum for discussion of critical research and science needs for developing new or revised recreational ambient water quality criteria in the near-term. The Report of the Experts Scientific Workshop (EPA 823-R-07-006) summarizes the discussion of the scientific and technical panels.

The Critical Path Science Plan (August 2007) describes the high priority research and science that EPA intends to conduct to establish the scientific foundation for the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria recommendations.

2012 Draft Recreational Water Quality Criteria Webinar

On January 25, 2012, EPA conducted a webinar to allow stakeholders the opportunity to ask clarifying questions on the 2012 Draft Recreational Water Quality Criteria recommendations.
Webinar Presentation slides (PDF) (21 pp, 457K)

2011 Stakeholder Meeting on EPA’s Development of New or Revised Recreational Water Quality Criteria

On June 14-15, 2011, EPA held its 2011 Recreational Water Quality Criteria Stakeholder Meeting in New Orleans, LA. At this meeting, EPA received stakeholder feedback on its evaluation, synthesis, summarization and statistical analysis of the research conducted and completed in December 2010; and on the development of options for the overall structure and content of the criteria. The meeting agenda and presentations are provided below.

On September 20, 2011, EPA will be conducting a webinar on selected presentations from the 2011 Recreational Water Quality Criteria Stakeholder Meeting in New Orleans. Registration is required to attend.

Meeting Agenda

2011 Stakeholder Meeting Agenda (PDF) (3 pp, 349K)

2011 Stakeholder Meeting Summary (PDF) (7 pp, 188K)

In August 2008, EPA and the plaintiffs reached a settlement on a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court for the Central District of California against EPA regarding EPA's failure to have met statutory deadlines in the Clean Water Act, as amended by the BEACH ACT, to conduct studies on pathogens and pathogen indicators in coastal recreational waters and publish water quality criteria recommendations based on those studies.

Summary of the Avian Experts Workshop

The EPA held an experts workshop in fall 2011 to evaluate the state-of-knowledge on the risks that avian and other wildlife fecal pollution pose to human health in U.S. recreational waters. Workshop participants also discussed the tools and data needed for evaluating those risks. Twenty-six experts from the United States and Canada participated in the workshop, representing multiple U.S. federal agencies (including the EPA), state and local government, a public research agency, academia, and consultants. The EPA held this meeting as part of a 2008 settlement agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), and Los Angeles County.

• Report of the Experts Scientific Workshop on Potential Human Health Risks from Exposure to Fecal Contamination from Avian and Other Wildlife Sources in Recreational Waters (PDF) (12 pp, 240K)
• Report Appendices (PDF) (22 pp, 468K)

EPA announces draft Recreational Water Quality Criteria document

EPA has released for scientific views the 2012 draft document Recreational Water Quality Criteria (PDF) (73 pp, 543K). The document contains EPA’s draft recreational water quality criteria for protecting human health in ambient waters that are designated for primary contact recreation. The EPA will accept comments on the draft document until February 21, 2012. See the Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 84K) and the Federal Register notice. You can review and comment on the draft at regulations.gov under EPA-OW-2011-0466. To review the draft document and its appendices, go to this link and open the second document in the docket, OW-2011-0466-0002. For more information, go to Documents and Announcements below.

Charge Questions for Peer Review of the Draft Criteria Document

EPA will be conducting an external panel peer review of the draft Recreational Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health document. The purpose of this peer review is to evaluate scientific defensibility of EPA's approach to develop the criteria. The five charge questions that will be posed to the external expert reviewers are listed below.

• Does the document adequately present the logic and scientific support behind its conclusions? Please comment on the document's transparency, the completeness of the presentations, and any shortfalls in the material presented. Are uncertainties for technical conclusions transparent? Do you have any suggestions on how we could improve this document? Please explain your responses.
• Are you aware of any important peer reviewed literature or applicable data that have not been incorporated in this document and should be included?
• Do the analyses comparing the NEEAR freshwater and marine culture-based indicator data aggregated by days of similar water quality corroborate that the NEEAR culture data are generally consistent with the 1986 regression models?
• Do the characterization and explanation of the qPCR method reflect that of the scientific literature? If not, what additional information should be included? Is the derivation of the qPCR value using the EPA data scientifically supported and adequately explained? Please discuss why or why not.
• Please provide any other general or specific comments on the document, making sure to identify the section number/page number you are commenting on.

In February 2009, an Experts Scientific Workshop on Inland Waters was hosted by WERF and supported by EPA in order to obtain expert input on research and analyses that can be initiated and completed by December 2010 to support the applicability of EPA's new recreational criteria to flowing fresh waters and lakes; and what longer-term research should be pursued to gain a better understanding of the health risks from recreating in inland waters as compared to marine coastal or Great Lakes waters. WERF has published a report that summarizes the proceedings and findings: Report on the Experts Scientific Workshop on Critical Research and Science Needs for the Development of Recreational Water Quality Criteria for Inland Waters.

See "Research Projects" for the December 2010 critical science and research documents supporting the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria by October 2012

In April 2009, EPA announced the selection of sites for EPA conducted health studies to support development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria. These studies along with other research activities will allow EPA to build a strong scientific foundation for up-to-date recreational water criteria.

EPA conducted literature reviews to help inform criteria development (February 2009):

• Review of Published Studies to Characterize Relative Risks From Different Sources of Fecal Contamination in Recreational Waters (PDF) (103 pp, 1.5MB)
  This review describes the existing knowledgebase available to characterize the relative risks of human illness from various sources of fecal contamination in recreational waters.

• Review of Zoonotic Pathogens in Ambient Waters (PDF) (109 pp, 2.4MB)
  This review provides a summary of information on waterborne zoonotic pathogens that come primarily from warm-blooded animals.

EPA has completed critical science and research identified in the Consent Decree and Settlement Agreement in order to publish new or revised recreational water quality criteria by October 2012. The projects and activities below represent high priority research and science that EPA conducted to establish the scientific foundation for the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria recommendations. Full descriptions of each project and others can be found in the Critical Path Science Plan.

PROJECT TITLE	COMPLETION NOTICE	REPORT
Complete an epidemiological study in marine waters impacted by urban runoff in a temperate region	Print Version (PDF) (1 pp, 18K)	Print Version (PDF) (449 pp, 22MB)
Complete an epidemiological study in a tropical region	Print Version (PDF) (1 pp, 19K)
Conduct epidemiological studies at POTW-impacted marine beaches in Fairhope, Alabama and Goddard, Rhode Island (P1, P2)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 20K)	http://www.ehjournal.net/content/9/1/66
Conduct QMRA (based on measurements of pathogenic organisms and indicators) to estimate illness at a freshwater beach impacted by agricultural animal sources of fecal contamination (location to be determined) (P4)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 52K)	Print Version (PDF) (456 pp, 10MB)
Study various parameters that affect performance of qPCR signal for enterococci and compare with other methods and pathogens in treated wastewater mixed with ambient waters (enterococci, E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and enterovirus) (P8)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 24K)	Print Version (PDF) (181 pp, 16.1MB)
Design and evaluate a monitoring approach that will characterize the quality of beach waters that takes into account the spatial and temporal variability associated with water sampling (P12)	Print Version (PDF) (1 pp, 32K)	Print Version (PDF) (69 pp, 1.8MB)
Evaluate multiple indicator/method combinations to develop quantifiable relationships (P15)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 70K)	Print Version (PDF) (54 pp, 1.3MB)
Study the effects of sampling holding time, sample storage, and preservation on sample integrity for future use (P16)	Print Version (PDF) (1 pp, 18K)	Print Version (PDF) (58 pp, 479K)
(1) Develop, refine, validate, and publish one or more new ambient test and (2) develop, refine, validate, and publish one or more new wastewater test method(s) provided the results of P8 and P18 indicate that a new wastewater test method is necessary (P17)	Print Version (PDF) (1 pp, 14K)	http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/ methods/bioindicators/biological_index.cfm
Evaluate the suitability of individual combinations of indicators and methods for different CWA programs (P18)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 22K)	Print Version (PDF) (21 pp, 182K)
Re-analyze archived NEEAR samples using molecular methods for other indicators, including at least E. coli, provided the samples have not degraded during storage (depending on the outcome of P16 and the nature of indicator/method) (P22) *	NA	NA
Pilot test Virtual Beach model for beach notification and advisories/closures (P23)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 67K)	Print Version (PDF) (152 pp, 4.5MB)
Refine and validate existing water quality models for freshwater beach notification and advisories/closures (P24)
Refine and validate other existing water quality models for marine beach notification and advisories/closures (P25)
Develop technical protocol for site-specific application of predictive models to be used in making beach advisory decisions (P26)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 23K)	Print Version (PDF) (71 pp, 1.2MB)
Compare EPA’s 1986 Bacteria Criteria recommendations to NEEAR studies to better understand the relationship between fecal contamination and illness in these data sets, provided EPA can obtain the raw data used to develop the 1986 Criteria (P27) *	NA	NA
Evaluate applicability of NEEAR Great Lakes data to inland waters. (P28)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 84K)	Print Version (PDF) (52 pp, 553K)
Conduct statistical analysis of children data from epidemiological studies (P29)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 29K)	Print Version (PDF) (2 pp, 27K)

* Projects were not completed due to contingencies identified in the Settlement Agreement.