Clean Water Rule

Clean Water Rule

Clean Water Rule. I'm Greg Martin with Washington Ag Today.

Department of Ecology has issued a new draft of their clean water rule. Sandy Howard with the Washington Department of Ecology says the new draft should not affect agriculture.

HOWARD: A lot of people refer to it as the fish consumption rule. It's really about updating our states water quality standards for toxics and the water quality standards for toxics are important because they tell us how clean the water needs to be for people and for fish. They're also important because they set the bar for pollution limits for industries and wastewater treatment plants.

Ecology continues to work with researchers and manufacturers to find safer chemical alternatives, eliminating these toxics at the source.

HOWARD: Right now we are updating the standards because our current standards that have been in place since 1992 do not reflect how much fish Washington eats. Basically we are proposing that we have more protective standards than we had in 1992 based on an average of fish consumption rate of 175 grams per day per person.

Again, Howard says this is for industrial toxics and won't have any effect on the business of farming.

HOWARD: We're working on many other levels to reduce toxics in Washington State, to find sources and remove them so it's much cheaper to prevent than to clean up after the fact so that work is continuing in earnest in our state.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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