Cleaner Water
Setting Standards for Industrial Sources
Three new rules will substantially reduce pollutant discharges from industrial facilities, improve water
quality, and protect both human health and aquatic life by setting improved standards:
- Coal Mining: New initiatives protect rivers. Wastewater standards will clean up 5,000 miles of
impaired streams in Appalachia and improve watersheds in the arid West by restoring land at active mines to
pre-mining conditions.
- Iron and Steel Manufacturing: New rules update and revise wastewater standards from the 1980s to
improve environmental protection and reflect technological changes in manufacturing processes. The improved
standards reduce pollutant discharges by 1.4 million pounds, including toxic pollutants that increase cancer
risk.
- Water Intake Structures: New standards for location, design, construction, and capacity of
cooling water intake structures will protect fish, shellfish, and other aquatic life from being killed or
injured by cooling water intake structures, common at large power plants. The standards encourage innovation
and allow facilities to tailor protection measures to local circumstances.
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