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Board adopts EPA-recommended, fish-tissue-based selenium criteria for Knox Creek tributaries
Summary
The board approved site-specific selenium criteria, adopting EPA-recommended fish-tissue and water-column expressions for four tributaries to Knox Creek in Buchanan County after DEQ corrected its proposal to reflect EPA's 2021 updates; several conservation groups had opposed giving fish-tissue data primacy.
The State Water Control Board voted on March 27 to adopt site-specific selenium aquatic-life criteria for four tributaries to Knox Creek in Buchanan County, aligning Virginia with EPA-recommended fish-tissue and water-column expressions for those water bodies.
Tish Robertson, a DEQ water-quality standards scientist, told the board the criteria were requested through a petition from a mining company and that DEQ followed regulatory steps including regulatory advisory panels and public comment. She said EPA’s 2016—and later-updated—criterion is expressed in fish tissue and in water-column values (with different expressions for lentic and lotic waters and by exposure duration). DEQ corrected earlier proposed language to reflect EPA’s 2021 update and explained the technical reason EPA gives primacy to fish-tissue measures (they reflect bioaccumulation and long-term ecological risk, especially to reproduction and larval/juvenile growth).
Robertson said DEQ received five comments during the public comment period, including a letter opposing the rule from Appalachian Voices and signatories including Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and the Sierra Club; those commenters argued fish-tissue data should not be weighted more heavily than water-column measures and recommended outfall-based water-column compliance in fishless waters. DEQ responded that EPA guidance calls for fish-tissue data to be the more meaningful ecological indicator and added implementation language for fishless waters consistent with EPA procedures. Support letters came from Virginia Energy and staff at Clintwood JOD, who said similar criteria are being implemented in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Board members asked technical questions about why fish-egg/ovary tissue is emphasized. Robertson explained egg/ovary concentrations were the basis of toxicity datasets and other tissue values are modeled from egg concentrations. After discussion, the staff recommendation was moved and seconded and the board adopted the amendments by voice vote.
DEQ indicated the amendments include footnotes and implementation guidance and the department corrected discrepancies to mirror EPA's later language. The board's action codifies site-specific numeric criteria for the named tributaries to Knox Creek. DEQ will incorporate the adopted language into the water quality standards regulation as presented to the board.
