An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Scientific Workshops and Research Supporting Development of the 2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria

On this page:

November 2011 Avian Expert Workshop

EPA held an experts workshop in fall 2011 to evaluate the state-of-knowledge on the risks that avian and other wildlife fecal pollution pose to human health in U.S. recreational waters. Workshop participants also discussed the tools and data needed for evaluating those risks. Twenty-six experts from the United States and Canada participated in the workshop, representing multiple U.S. federal agencies (including EPA), state and local government, a public research agency, academia, and consultants. EPA held this meeting as part of a 2008 settlement agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), and Los Angeles County.

The settlement agreement also requires that, by December 15, 2012, EPA evaluate whether any of the studies identified during the workshop should be performed to help EPA improve our understanding of human health risks for any future recreational water quality criteria revision. There were no specific studies identified by the workshop experts.

February 2009 Inland Waters Expert Scientific Workshop

In February 2009 WERF hosted and EPA supported an experts workshop on inland waters in order to obtain expert input on research and analyses that could be initiated and completed by December 2010 to support the applicability of EPA's new recreational criteria to flowing fresh waters and lakes; and what longer-term research should be pursued to gain a better understanding of the health risks from recreating in inland waters as compared to marine coastal or Great Lakes waters. WERF has published a report that summarizes the proceedings and findings.

March 2007 Expert Workshop for Input on New Recreational Water Quality Criteria

EPA's March 2007 Experts Scientific Workshop was a forum for discussion of critical research and science needs for developing new or revised recreational ambient water quality criteria. The Report of the Experts Scientific Workshop summarizes the discussion of the scientific and technical panels.