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For more than a decade, concerned scientists have been pressuring the EPA to strengthen its 1987 selenium water quality standards. Selenium, a toxic metal, is known to cause severe reproductive impairments in fish, birds, and other wildlife, even at levels that comply with current standards. High selenium levels are generally associated with releases from a variety of industrial sources, including coal mining operations, coal-fired power plants, copper and phosphate mines, oil refineries, and irrigated agriculture. 

On December 17, 2004, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed changing the current Clean Water Act water-quality standards for selenium. But instead of strengthening the standards, the EPA's new proposal would replace the existing criterion with a standard based on faulty science, weakening the existing limits. Ultimately, the new proposal would allow industrial polluters to dump more toxic selenium in our waters.

The EPA is currently accepting public comments on its proposed changes to the selenium standards, but the comment period ends NEXT MONDAY, April 18, 2005.  Please write the EPA today to tell the agency not to weaken existing toxic selenium standards.