Office of Water Office of Science and Technology Response to Public Comments Proposal of Certain Federal Water Quality Standards for Maine December 2016 Introduction The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing federal Clean Water Act (CWA) water quality standards (WQS) for certain waters under the state of Maine’s jurisdiction. EPA is finalizing human health criteria (HHC) to protect the sustenance fishing designated use in waters in Indian lands and in waters subject to sustenance fishing rights under the Maine Implementing Act (MIA), based on a fish consumption rate that represents an unsuppressed level of fish consumption by the four federally recognized tribes in Maine. EPA is finalizing six additional WQS for waters in Indian lands in Maine, two WQS for all waters in Maine including waters in Indian lands, and one WQS for waters in Maine outside of Indian lands. These WQS take into account the best available science, including local and regional information, as well as applicable EPA policies, guidance, and legal requirements, to protect human health and aquatic life. EPA is promulgating these WQS to address various disapprovals of Maine’s standards that EPA issued in February, March, and June 2015, and to address the Administrator’s determination that Maine’s HHC are not adequate to protect the designated use of sustenance fishing for certain waters. In developing this final rule, EPA carefully considered the public comments and feedback received from interested parties. EPA provided a 60-day public comment period after publishing the proposed rule in the Federal Register on April 20, 2016. In addition, EPA held two virtual public hearings on June 7th and 9th, 2016, to discuss the contents of the proposed rule and accept verbal public comments. Over 100 organizations and individuals submitted comments on a range of issues. Some comments addressed issues beyond the scope of the rulemaking, and thus EPA did not consider them in finalizing this rule. This document provides a compendium of the comments submitted by commenters and EPA’s responses to those comments. Excerpts from comments have been organized by topic, but otherwise comments have been copied into this document “as is” with no editing or summarizing by EPA. Footnotes are taken directly from the comments. EPA has sorted the comments and its responses into 17 general topic areas. For most of the topic areas, EPA provides a general essay that responds to the greater part of the comments received on that topic. To the extent there are individual comments which are not covered by the general essay, EPA has provided specific responses directly following the excerpt of such comments. For a few of the topic areas EPA only responds to individual comments. In addition to their comments, some commenters incorporated by reference additional documents, which in some cases were submitted as attachments to their comments. Where commenters affirmatively assimilated the referenced documents into their comments regarding this rule, EPA has provided a response to those substantive comments. Where commenters note the documents with a simple incorporation by reference without any further explanation or assimilation, EPA is not providing an affirmative response to such documents. In the latter example, EPA notes that some of those documents have been filed in other proceedings and the Agency has already responded to them in those proceedings. Page 2 of 231 Table of Contents Page Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Index of Commenters ............................................................................................................................... 11 Topic 1 General Statements of Support ............................................................................................ 14 Hitchings, C. (Excerpt # 76) ............................................................................................................... 14 Dowzer, M. (Excerpt # 119) ............................................................................................................... 14 Woodman, F. (Excerpt # 86) .............................................................................................................. 15 Anonymous (Excerpt # 27) ................................................................................................................ 15 Natural Resources Council of Maine (Excerpt # 144) ....................................................................... 15 Jim (no surname) (Excerpt # 30) ........................................................................................................ 16 Mason, G. (Excerpt # 63) ................................................................................................................... 16 Anonymous (Excerpt # 31) ................................................................................................................ 16 Anonymous (Excerpt # 82) ................................................................................................................ 16 Anonymous (Excerpt # 121) .............................................................................................................. 17 National Tribal Water Council (Excerpt # 134) ................................................................................. 17 Plourde, D. (Excerpt # 84) ................................................................................................................. 17 Hough, J. (Excerpt # 73) .................................................................................................................... 18 Bowdell, F. (Excerpt # 42) ................................................................................................................. 18 Anonymous (Excerpt # 49) ................................................................................................................ 19 Anonymous (Excerpt # 94) ................................................................................................................ 20 Anonymous (Excerpt # 68) ................................................................................................................ 20 Ewing, B. (Excerpt # 54) .................................................................................................................... 20 Anonymous (Excerpt # 58) ................................................................................................................ 20 Counsel for Penobscot Nation (Excerpt # 148) .................................................................................. 21 Anonymous (Excerpt # 61) ................................................................................................................ 21 Anonymous (Excerpt # 36) ................................................................................................................ 22 Anonymous (Excerpt # 15) ................................................................................................................ 22 Strickland, P. R. (Excerpt # 103) ....................................................................................................... 22 Crawford, G. (Excerpt # 98) ............................................................................................................... 23 Anonymous (Excerpt # 100) .............................................................................................................. 23 Anonymous (Excerpt # 7) .................................................................................................................. 23 Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians (Excerpt # 193) ........................................................................... 24 Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Excerpt # 194) ............................................................ 24 Page 3 of 231 Leaverton, L. (Excerpt # 22) .............................................................................................................. 25 Anonymous (Excerpt # 1) .................................................................................................................. 25 Anonymous (Excerpt # 12) ................................................................................................................ 26 Anonymous (Excerpt # 18) ................................................................................................................ 26 Anonymous (Excerpt # 106) .............................................................................................................. 26 Anonymous (Excerpt # 19) ................................................................................................................ 27 Anonymous (Excerpt # 2) .................................................................................................................. 27 Weiser Mason, S. (Excerpt # 107) ..................................................................................................... 28 Beal, C. (Excerpt # 91) ....................................................................................................................... 28 Maine Lobstering Union (Excerpt # 186) .......................................................................................... 28 Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife