CC-12-005: Notice of Availability of Draft Recreational Water Quality Criteria and Request for Scientific Views

In the December 21, 2011 Federal Register, EPA published its 2012 draft water quality criteria recommendations for protecting human health in ambient waters that are designated for primary contact recreation. These Recreational Water Quality Criteria (RWQC) recommendations are for bacterial contamination as measured by E. coli and enterococci. EPA proposes to retain the same nominal criteria values; however, the agency is seeking comment on a new analytical technique for measuring enterococci in ambient waters and new statistical procedures for interpreting bacterial data against the RWQC.