	United States

Environmental Protection Agency	Office of Water4304T	                   
            SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 EPA-822-F-08-003

September 2008

	Revised National Recommended Water Quality Criteria for the Protection
of Human Health: Draft Criteria for Acrolein and Phenol

EPA is publishing updated draft national recommended water quality
criteria for the protection of human health for acrolein and phenol. 
These updated criteria are based on EPA’s Methodology for Deriving
Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health
(2000), EPA-822-B-00-004 (2000 Human Health Methodology) and, when
finalized, will supersede current recommended criteria for these
chemicals.  

What are human health water quality criteria?

Human health water quality criteria are numeric values that protect
human health from the harmful effects of pollutants in surface water. 
Under section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act, water quality criteria are
based solely on data and scientific judgments about the relationship
between pollutant concentrations and environmental and human health
effects; economic or social impacts do not influence criteria
recommendations.

EPA’s national recommended water quality criteria provide guidance to
states and authorized tribes in adopting water quality criteria that
meet the requirements of the CWA.  They are not regulations themselves
and do not impose legally binding requirements on EPA, states,
territories, authorized tribes or the public.  

How were the water quality criteria updated?

EPA revised the human health water quality criteria based on the
Agency’s 2000 Human Health Methodology.  This methodology incorporates
significant scientific advances made in the last two decades,
particularly in the areas of cancer and noncancer risk assessments,
exposure assessments, and methodologies to estimate bioaccumulation in
fish.  

The updated water quality criteria integrate new reference doses for
acrolein and phenol.  These values have already been published in the
Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS).

What are the updated human health water quality criteria?

The following tables present the updated draft criteria values as well
as the current criteria values and the reference doses used to derive
the respective criteria values.  

U.S. EPA Draft Criteria Updates

Acrolein	Current Criterion	Updated Draft Criterion





IRIS RfD	0.0156 mg/(kg-d) (published 1977)	0.0005 mg/(kg-d)  (published
6/03) (http://www.epa.gov/ncea/iris/subst/0364.htm)

Water + Organisms	190 ug/l	6 ug/l

Organisms Only	290 ug/l	9 ug/l



Phenol	Current Criterion	Updated Draft Criterion





IRIS RfD	0.60 mg/(kg-d) (published 2/90)	0.30 mg/(kg-d) (published 9/02)

(http://www.epa.gov/ncea/iris/subst/0088.htm)

Water + Organisms	20,700 ug/l	10,400 ug/l

Organisms Only	1,700,000 ug/l	857,000 ug/l

Where can I find more information on the draft updated human health
water quality criteria?

For more information, contact Heidi L. Bethel, Health and Ecological
Criteria Division (4304T), U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20460; (202) 566-2054 or send an e-mail to   HYPERLINK
"mailto:bethel.heidi@epa.gov"  bethel.heidi@epa.gov .

You can find the Federal Register notice or updated national recommended
water quality criteria online at
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/humanhealth/.  

EPA has also established an official public docket for this action under
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2008-0553.

Scientific views will be accepted for 45 days on these draft criteria
revisions at the docket webpage.  The docket can be accessed at
www.regulations.gov.

 PAGE   

 PAGE   1 

