In addition to Congressman Latta’s remarks, the Environmental Protection Agency highlighted the release of its initial algal toxin assessment plan (as required by legislation authored by the Congressman) on EPA Connect:
“Today we’re releasing a comprehensive strategic plan outlining ongoing actions to address algal toxins in drinking water. Solving the challenge of algal toxins in drinking water will require action at all levels of government and approaches that are collaborative, innovative, and persistent. EPA will work closely with other federal agencies, state and local governments, and the public to provide scientific and technical leadership on a number of fronts, including health effects studies.” – Joel Beauvais, U.S. EPA
In the next year alone, EPA intends to:
- Develop and propose recreational water quality criteria for two types of algal toxins (microcystins and cylindrospermopsin), which will help protect people who paddle, swim, and spend time by the water.
- Collaborate on workshops to address HABs’ impacts on drinking water and activities to protect drinking water sources.
- Evaluate whether to include certain cyanotoxins in the fourth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, which will require the collection of drinking water to better understand whether these toxins are present in drinking water systems.
- Assist utilities in managing the risks from cyanotoxins to drinking water.
- Publish monitoring data for cyanobacteria and microcystins in the National Aquatic Resource Survey National Lakes Assessment.
- Accelerate development and use of technologies that can recover nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure and generate value-added products by partnering with the dairy and swine industries on the Nutrient Recycling Challenge.
- Improve EPA’s Drinking Water Mapping Application for Protecting Source Waters.
- Co-lead an interagency working group to develop a Comprehensive Research Plan and Action Strategy to address marine and freshwater HABs and hypoxia.
- Provide funding for critical projects that reduce nutrient pollution that fuels HABs in the Great Lakes.
