Section 93.8c. Human health and aquatic life criteria for toxic substances

(a) Table 5 and Chapter 16, Appendix A, Table 1A (relating to site-specific water quality criteria for toxic substances) list the aquatic life and human health criteria for toxic substances which the Department uses in development of effluent limitations in NPDES Permits and for other purposes. The human health criteria, which include probable modes of exposure (such as, but not limited to ingestion from drinking water and fish consumption, inhalation and dermal absorption), are further defined as to the specific effect (that is, cancer or threshold health effects). For those aquatic life criteria which are hardness related and specified as a formula, such as several of the heavy metals, the Department will use the specific hardness of the receiving stream after mixing with the waste discharge in calculating criteria on a case-by-case basis. The priority pollutant numbers (PP NO) used by the EPA to identify priority pollutants are included in Table 5 for reference purposes. The toxics without a PP NO are nonpriority pollutants or State-derived criteria.

(b) Some of these criteria may be superseded for the Delaware Estuary, Ohio River Basin, Lake Erie Basin, and Genesee River Basin under interstate and international compact agreements with the Delaware River Basin Commission, Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission and International Joint Commission, respectively. The criteria in Table 5 do not apply to the Great Lakes System. Water quality criteria for the Great Lakes System are contained in § 93.8e (relating to special criteria for the Great Lakes System) and Table 6 (relating to Great Lakes Aquatic Life and Human Health Criteria). Criteria may be developed for the Great Lakes System for substances other than those listed in § 93.8e under the methodologies in § 16.61 (relating to special provisions for the Great Lakes system).