Once every three years, the Illinois EPA is tasked by the Clean Water Act with reviewing and updating water quality standards for Illinois. This process is called the Triennial Review. The Illinois EPA is currently seeking input on which water quality standards they should update.
Our waters are protected by water quality standards (WARNING: link to the actual regulations). These standards set numerical limits on acceptable levels of what amount of nasty pollution is allowed to be in our surface waters, as well as some rules around how those limits are used, developed, and what to do when we don’t have limits. The water quality standards help our regulator, the Illinois EPA, limit how much pollution that a polluter can put into our water through water discharge permits (NPDES). As our science improves or new pollutants are discovered, these standards are periodically updated or created (or at least they should be). To help with the process, the US EPA also provides their best science that the states can use to justify updates to their water quality standards. Many of our standards in Illinois are not up-to-date with the US EPA’s best standards and we hope to change that.
Technically, we, the public, can work to update a water quality standard at any time. We just need to collect some signatures and some evidence and make a petition to the Illinois Pollution Control Board. But that effort likely won’t really go anywhere if the Illinois EPA is not also invested in the process. The Board can just sit on your petition. That’s why the Triennial Review is a valuable moment. Illinois EPA is moving to update some standards. In fact, they’re asking the public to provide input on which standards they should update. They’ve also identified a number of possible water quality standards to update.
Prairie Rivers Network is working with partners to provide input on this process to the Illinois EPA. We’re drafting a sign-on letter that will be ready soon. When it is, we’ll link it here, but also keep an eye on our social media and your inboxes for ways to join our efforts. Until then, feel free to reply to the Illinois EPA’s request for input yourself. They’ve prepared a slide deck with some information about updates they are proposing. You can recommend prioritization of topics here or submit comments to EPA.PublicHearingCom@illinois.gov with “Triennial Review” in the subject line.
