SEDL / STP / STP891-EB / STP33561S

Clean Water Act Update: A New Role for Toxicology

Wise, PL
Acting director, Office of Analysis and Evaluation, Office of Water Regulations and Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC,

Pages: 6    Published: Jan 1985

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Abstract

Implementation of the Clean Water Act started with development of water pollution controls using the tools of engineering and mathematical modeling. As implementation of the act has evolved, however, we have come to recognize the importance of toxic pollutants and that we need new and different methods, toxicological methods, to analyze toxic pollution and to set cost-effective toxic effluent controls. To deal with this new challenge, we have over the past year begun to put together an approach for regulating toxic effluents. Although a regulatory policy is now in place, implementation of that policy is just beginning. We have little experience in using toxicological methods and tests for regulating effluents, yet we need to make this new regulatory approach work. We need the help of the scientific community of toxicologists, and we need it now—to develop toxicological tools that can be used in the cost-effective analysis and control of toxic water pollution.