The DEP Water Resources Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet on May 23 to the scientific literature behind regulating manganese and the draft PA Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan.

Also on the agenda is a presentation on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers Aquatic Life Use Assessment and a discussion of the proposed Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards regulation.

Manganese

A last minute amendment to the Administrative Code budget bill in 2017 directed the Environmental Quality Board to adopt a proposed manganese standard within 90 days that includes the 1 milligram/liter manganese standard established under 25 Pa Code Chapter 93.7 and insure the standard is met at the point of intake for water suppliers (25 Pa Code Chapter 96.3).  The amendment was done as a favor to the coal industry.

The 1 milligram/liter standard is 20 times the level of manganese that water suppliers are allowed to have in their water supplies, according to EPA’s secondary maximum contaminant level. Click Here for more.

Current science shows manganese is harmful to human health as a possible nervous system toxin with implications to early childhood development at levels that are less than the threshold levels that impact aquatic life.

The change sweeps away 28 years of environmental protection for Pennsylvania waterways impacted by the consequences of acid mine drainage, and imposes additional testing, monitoring and treatment at public water supply operations along these waterways.

Local government groups, drinking water suppliers and many other groups opposed the amendment. Click Here for more.

In January of 2018, DEP published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking requesting information on changing the water quality standard.

DEP said it will use the information received to “evaluate the adequacy of the existing manganese water quality criterion when the point of compliance is moved to the location of an existing or planned surface potable water supply withdrawal.”

DEP consulted with the Small Water Systems Technical Assistance Center Board, the Agricultural Advisory Board and discussed the results of the information they received from the advanced notice with the Water Resources Advisory Committee at its November 28 meeting.

The presentation prepared for the May 23 meeting reviews the scientific literature and information DEP has compiled on regulating manganese.  A list of literature reviewed is also available.

DEP is proposing to bring a draft manganese regulation back to the Water Resources Advisory Committee at its next meeting on July 25 and make a presentation to the Agricultural Advisory Board on August 29.

[Note: On March 29 Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) and Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, filed a petition on March 29 asking Commonwealth Court for mandamus relief to compel DEP and the Environmental Quality Board to set a water quality standard for manganese as required by an October 2017 rider to an Administrative Code budget bill. Click Here for more.]

The meeting will be held in Room 105 of the Rachel Carson Building starting at 9:30.

For more information and available handouts, visit the DEP Water Resources Advisory Committee webpage.  Questions should be directed to Diane Wilson by calling 717-787-3730 or send email to: diawilson@pa.gov.

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Related Stories:

Senators Scarnati, Yaw File Court Action To Compel DEP, EQB To Set Manganese Standard

Draft PA Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan Now Available For Public Comment

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[Posted: May 17, 2019]

5/19/2019