Environmental Assessment for the Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category
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United States Office of Water EPA-821-R-15-006 Environmental Protection Washington, DC 20460 September 2015 Agency Environmental Assessment for the Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category Environmental Assessment for the Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category EPA-821-R-15-006 September 2015 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water (4303T) Engineering and Analysis Division 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460 Acknowledgements and Disclaimer This report was prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Neither the United States Government nor any of its employees, contractors, subcontractors, or their employees make any warrant, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any third party’s use of or the results of such use of any information, apparatus, product, or process discussed in this report, or represents that its use by such party would not infringe on privately owned rights. Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACRONYMS ................................................................................................................................. VIII GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................................... XI SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1-1 SECTION 2 BACKGROUND AND SCOPE ........................................................................................2-1 SECTION 3 ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN HEALTH CONCERNS..............................................3-1 3.1 Types of Pollutants Discharged in Steam Electric Power Plant Wastewater ...........3-2 3.1.1 Metals and Toxic Bioaccumulative Pollutants .............................................3-2 3.1.2 Nutrients .......................................................................................................3-9 3.1.3 TDS...............................................................................................................3-9 3.2 Loadings Associated with Steam Electric Power Plant Wastewater ......................3-12 3.2.1 Annual Baseline Pollutant Loadings ..........................................................3-13 3.2.2 Comparison of Steam Electric Power Plant Loadings to Other Industries ....................................................................................................3-15 3.2.3 Comparison of Steam Electric Power Plant Loadings to Publicly Owned Treatment Works ...........................................................................3-16 3.3 Environmental Impacts from Steam Electric Power Plant Wastewater .................3-20 3.3.1 Ecological Impacts .....................................................................................3-20 3.3.2 Human Health Effects ................................................................................3-27 3.3.3 Damage Cases and Other Documented Surface Water Impacts ................3-28 3.3.4 Damage Cases and Other Documented Ground Water Impacts ................3-35 3.3.5 Potential for Impacts to Occur in Other Locations .....................................3-37 3.4 Discharge to Sensitive Environments .....................................................................3-38 3.4.1 Pollutant Loadings to the Great Lakes Watershed .....................................3-38 3.4.2 Pollutant Loadings to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed ..............................3-40 3.4.3 Proximity to Impaired Waters ....................................................................3-42 3.4.4 Proximity to Fish Consumption Advisory Waters .....................................3-44 3.4.5 Proximity to Threatened and Endangered Species Habitats .......................3-45 3.4.6 Proximity to Drinking Water Resources ....................................................3-46 3.5 Long Environmental Recovery Times Associated with Pollutants in Steam Electric Power Plant Wastewater............................................................................3-47 SECTION 4 ASSESSMENT OF EXPOSURE PATHWAYS ..................................................................4-1 4.1 Discharge and Leaching to Surface Waters ..............................................................4-2 4.1.1 Factors Controlling Environmental Impacts in Surface Waters ...................4-2 4.1.2 Assessment of the Surface Water Exposure Pathway ..................................4-4 4.2 Leaching to Ground Water .......................................................................................4-7 4.2.1 Factors Controlling Environmental Impacts to Ground Water ....................4-7 4.2.2 Assessment of the Ground Water Exposure Pathway ................................4-12 4.3 Combustion Residual Surface Impoundments as Attractive Nuisance ..................4-12 i Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page SECTION 5 SURFACE WATER MODELING...................................................................................5-1 5.1 Immediate Receiving Water (IRW) Model ..............................................................5-1 5.1.1 Water Quality Module..................................................................................5-3 5.1.2 Wildlife Module ...........................................................................................5-8 5.1.3 Human Health Module ...............................................................................5-10 5.2 Ecological Risk Modeling ......................................................................................5-12 SECTION 6 CURRENT IMPACTS FROM STEAM ELECTRIC POWER GENERATING INDUSTRY.........................................................................................................................6-1 6.1 Water Quality Impacts ..............................................................................................6-1 6.2 Wildlife Impacts .......................................................................................................6-3 6.2.1 Impacts to Wildlife Indicator Species ..........................................................6-3 6.2.2 Impacts to Fish and Waterfowl due to Dietary Selenium Exposure ............6-4 6.2.3 Impacts to Benthic Organisms ......................................................................6-6 6.3 Human Health Impacts .............................................................................................6-7 6.3.1 National-Scale Cohort Analysis ...................................................................6-8 6.3.2 Environmental Justice Analysis .................................................................6-12 SECTION 7 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS UNDER THE FINAL RULE................................7-1 7.1 Pollutant Removals Under the Regulatory Options..................................................7-5 7.2 Key Environmental Improvements ...........................................................................7-9 7.2.1 Improvements in Water Quality Under the Final Rule ................................7-9 7.2.2 Reduced Threat to Wildlife Under the Final Rule ......................................7-13 7.2.3 Reduced Human Health Cancer Risk Under the Final Rule ......................7-15 7.2.4 Reduced Threat of Non-Cancer Human Health Effects Under the Final Rule ...................................................................................................7-15 7.2.5 Reduced Human Health Risk for Environmental Justice Analysis ............7-15 7.3 Pollutant-Specific Improvements ...........................................................................7-16 7.3.1 Arsenic........................................................................................................7-16 7.3.2 Mercury ......................................................................................................7-19 7.3.3 Selenium .....................................................................................................7-21 7.3.4 Cadmium ....................................................................................................7-25 7.3.5 Thallium .....................................................................................................7-25 7.4 Improvements to Sensitive Environments .............................................................7-28 7.4.1 Impaired Waters .........................................................................................7-28 7.4.2 Threatened and Endangered Species ..........................................................7-31 7.4.3 Fish Advisory Waters .................................................................................7-31 7.5 Improvements to Watersheds............................................... ..................................7-31 7.6 Environmental and Human Health Improvements in Downstream Surface Water.......................................................................................................................7-34 7.7 Attractive Nuisances ...............................................................................................7-37 7.8 Other Secondary Improvements .............................................................................7-37 7.9 Unresolved Drinking Water Impacts Due to Bromide Discharges ........................7-38 SECTION 8 CASE STUDY MODELING...........................................................................................8-1