»Chapter 584, Surface Water Quality Criteria for Toxic Pollutants [Posted on Friday November 22, 2019] The Department is proposing to amend the existing Chapter 584: Surface Water Quality Criteria for Toxic Pollutants. This rule establishes ambient water quality criteria for toxic pollutants in the surface waters of the State and sets forth procedures that may be used to determine alternative statewide criteria or site-specific criteria adopted as part of a licensing proceeding. The purpose of the rulemaking proposal is to implement Human Health Criteria based on updates to 38 M.R.S. 466, sub-10-A for the designated use of sustenance fishing, institute water effect ratios (WERs) for the Androscoggin and St. Croix rivers, as well as promulgate new ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) for copper in the Little Androscoggin River based on the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM), and introduce carbaryl in the non-priority pollutant list. The proposal also updates AWQC for human health using methodology from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Human Health Ambient Water Quality Criteria 2015 update.
[Background materials in response to questions raised at the November 21 public hearing](
https://www.maine.gov/dep/ftp/temp/ch584/). »Chapter 890, Designation of PFOS as a Priority Chemical - Reopen comment period, public hearing scheduled [Posted on Thursday January 02, 2020] The Department is reopening the public comment period for Chapter 890 and scheduling a public hearing before the Board of Environmental Protection. Since the initial posting and the April 23 public hearing, the Department amended the draft rule to clarify the products covered. The amended rule was posted for a thirty-day comment period on October 2. Prior to the close of that comment period the Department received more than five requests for a public hearing.
The Department is proposing that the Board adopt the new rule that will designate perfluorooctane sulfonic acid ("PFOS") as a priority chemical and require reporting for certain product categories that contains this regulated chemical. The proposed rule applies to manufacturers of specified product categories that contain intentionally added amounts of PFOS, which is often used to make clothing water repellent, among many other uses.