Code of Colorado Regulations
1000 - Department of Public Health and Environment
1002 - Water Quality Control Commission (1002 Series)
5 CCR 1002-31 - REGULATION NO. 31 - THE BASIC STANDARDS AND METHODOLOGIES FOR SURFACE WATER
Section 5 CCR 1002-31.51 - STATEMENT OF BASIS, SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORITY AND PURPOSE; AUGUST 13, 2012 RULEMAKING; FINAL ACTION SEPTEMBER 11, 2012; EFFECTIVE DATE JANUARY 31, 2013

A. Basic Standards for Organic Chemicals

In this rulemaking, the Commission adopted revised and new organic chemical standards in section 31.11 . In an effort to keep ground water and surface water organic chemical standards consistent, the changes to section 41.5 were considered during the same hearing that addressed changes to the statewide surface water organic chemical standards in Regulation No. 31 (Basic Standards and Methodologies for Surface Water).

In adopting these new and revised organic chemical standards, the Commission continued to rely on its past policy decisions and precedence documented in Commission Policy 96-2. Additionally, as per Departmental policy, the Commission has relied on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) as its first tier source of toxicological data. Review of the IRIS data that had been updated since the last revisions to 41.5(C)(3) indicated that the water quality standards for acrylamide, carbon tetrachloride, 1,4-dioxane, hexachloroethane, nitrobenzene, pentachlorophenol, tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and 1,1,1-trichloroethane, needed to be revised. This review also identified new compounds in the IRIS data that the Commission elected to adopt as water quality standards, these were: acetone, bromobenzene, chlordecone, 1,2-dibromoethane, dichloromethane, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (EGBE) (2-Butoxyethanol), 2-hexanone, perchlorate, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, trichloroacetic acid, 1,2,3-trichloropropane. The compounds acylamide, dichloromethane, and 1,2,3-trichloropropane are mutagenic compounds, and the resulting Water Supply standards were calculated following EPA guidance on calculating water supply standards for mutagenic compounds. The Commission also corrected several typographical errors and added common synonyms for some of the organic chemicals.

The Commission heard testimony from several parties asserting that the revised standard adopted for 1,4 dioxane may not be attainable with economical treatment technologies and in some instances may be difficult to measure using current laboratory analytical techniques. Such technical and economic issues are often addressed by EPA in establishing a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Commission has in the past established a range for a particular chemical, with the health-based standard being the minimum and the MCL the maximum, since EPA has determined that MCLs represent an acceptable level to provide in public drinking water. However, no MCL has been developed for 1,4 dioxane. The Commission therefore did not adopt a range and instead set the statewide standard for 1,4 dioxane at a level to protect human health, based on the currently available scientific information and applying the Commission's established risk-based policy approach. The Commission believes that the concerns raised are better addressed with respect to site-specific implementation issues and notes that there may be a need for site-specific standards for 1,4-dioxane and other regulated organic chemicals to address site-specific economic and/or technical treatment capabilities. The Division concurred with the parties' testimony regarding these concerns and expressed willingness to work with parties who propose site-specific solutions to the Commission.

PARTIES TO THE RULEMAKING