Announcement: Ecology Public meeting July 22 on Water Quality Standards update

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The Department of Ecology will hold a public meeting on July 22 to outline its next steps to update the water quality standards for human health criteria and implementation tools, following Governor Inslee’s directive issued July 9. This meeting will only cover the Water Quality Standards, not requested legislation on toxics reduction.

How can I attend?
The public meeting will be held as an interactive webinar Tues., July 22, 2014, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (PST).  Webinar participants will be able to ask questions, participate in discussions, and watch presentations from any online computer and phone.

Free registration for the webinar is available online at: https://customer.accuconference.com/Registration/index.aspx?pkRegQG=e5a418e8-05ea-4cd7-a54a-c137b4f74a05

Participants can also join the meeting in person at Ecology Headquarters Auditorium in Lacey, 300 Desmond Drive, Lacey, WA 98503-1274.  Seating for interested parties is available at that location.  You do not need to register for the webinar if you plan to attend in person.

What will be covered at this public meeting?
Ecology plans to share information about the next steps that will occur with the water quality standards to meet the Governor’s commitment to have a preliminary draft rule package available by September 30, 2014.

Presentations will include:

  • Information on what will be in the preliminary Draft Rule.
  • A comparison chart of the current human health criteria with the newly proposed criteria based on the Governor’s Directive.
  • Question and answer session on how the Governor’s proposal works for the 96 chemicals.
  • Identification of materials that we expect to have available to the public with the preliminary Draft Rule package.

How can I find more information?
More information about the public meeting, including a draft agenda, is available at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/swqs/Currswqsruleactiv.html.

For questions about Ecology’s efforts to revise the Surface Water Quality Standards, contact Susan Braley at 360-407-6414 or by email at swqs@ecy.wa.gov.