ED STUNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY37 1, REGION 105 1200 Sixth Avenue. Suite 900 .g? 5 Seattle. WA 98101-3140 omca opme56? 4L pR0?l<"APR 0 8 2014Maia Bellon, DirectorDepartment of EcologyP.O. Box 47600Olympia, Washington 98504-7600Dear Director Bellon:1 am writing in regards to your February 14, 2014 letter to Michael Grayum, Executive Director of theNorthwest Indian Fisheries Commission and more recent conversations we have had with you and yourstaff. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was strongly encouraged by the Department ofEcology?s timeline to adopt human health criteria with a draft rule by the end of March 2014 and a ?nalrule submitted to the EPA by December 31, 2014. Although the EPA was disappointed to hear thatEcology will no longer be able to meet the commitment to issue a draft rule in March, we understandthat Ecology remains committed to adopting a ?nal rule by the end of 2014.The EPA supports Ecology?s use of the scientifically sound regional and local ?sh consumption dataavailable in Washington as it develops its human health criteria. As I have previously stated, the bestavailable science includes evidence of fish consumption rates well above 6.5 grams per day among high?sh consumers in Washington, which raises concems that the human health criteria currently in effectfor Clean Water Act purposes in Washington are not suf?ciently protective. In addition, as we have alsodiscussed, another important element of a ?nal rule is choosing a cancer risk level that provides riskprotection for all Washington citizens, including communities that eat higher amounts of ?sh. The EPAremains committed to supporting Ecology as it moves forward with a rulemaking based on soundscienti?c data. This will help facilitate the review of Ecology?s new or revised water qualitystandards, which requires EPA to ensure that criteria are protective of applicable designated uses andbased on a sound scienti?c rationale, consistent with 40 CFR 131.1 If Ecology does not follow through with its stated timeframe for ?nal rule adoption, the EPA intends totake the steps necessary to allow for a proposal of federally revised human health criteria forWashington, via amendment of the National Toxics Rule human health criteria for Washington, by May31, 2015. For the sake of clarity, 1 note that this letter does not constitute, and is not intended as, anAdministrator determination under CWA The EPA is very appreciative of the challenging work that Ecology has undertaken thus far to adopthuman health water quality criteria. I look forward to continuing our partnership to support stateadoption of human health criteria to better ensure health protection for all Washington citizens. If youwould like to discuss these topics further, please contact me directly or Dan Opalski, our Director for theOffice of Water and Watersheds, at (206) 553-1855.Sincerely,9 0Dennis J. McLerranRegional Administratorcc: Michael Grayum, Executive DirectorNorthwest Indian Fisheries CommissionBrian Cladoosby, Tiibal ChairmanSwinomish Tribe