Stopping Selenium: New EPA standards coming?
Charleston Gazette
19 May 2010
By Ken Ward Jr.
The Obama administration is apparently nearing completion of a proposal
that would tighten the selenium discharges from coal-mining operations.
Release of a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended water
quality criteria for selenium is “imminent,” state Department of
Environmental Protection officials said during a public water quality
standards meeting this afternoon.
Some sort of EPA proposal has been in the works for years, but a Bush
administration effort was widely criticized by scientists as weakening
protections for aquatic life
Pat Campbell, a DEP water quality assistant director, said during
today’s meeting that he has not seen specific numbers on what EPA will
propose. But tighter limits on selenium have been among the measures
the Obama administration has been considering as part of its crackdown
on mountaintop removal.