EPA decides to impose tougher water standards on Washington state

EPA has formally determined that Washington state’s water quality standards for multiple pollutants fail to adequately protect fish and other aquatic life and plans to impose tough new federal rules in response to a petition from environmentalists calling for the agency to update the state’s standards. “EPA has concluded that Washington’s existing aquatic life criteria for arsenic, cadmium, copper, cyanide, mercury, nickel, and selenium are not protective of the applicable designated uses and based on sound scientific rationale… and that...