EPA Rule Bans Toxic Dumping Into Great Lakes

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it has approved a new regulation to ban the dumping of 700,000 pounds of toxic chemicals annually into the Great Lakes, including mercury, dioxin and pesticide discharges blamed for harming fish and wildlife.

The EPA issued a final rule banning the discharge of most toxic chemicals through the practice of “mixing zones,” a long-used method of disposing many toxic chemicals at a set point in a body of water. The theory has been that the dilution of the chemicals in surrounding waters justifies less protective dumping standards within the zone.

“Today’s action will dramatically reduce the toxic chemicals that threaten those waters,” said EPA Administrator Carol Browner in a statement issued by the agency.

“The solution to pollution is not dilution. And that is why the time has come to phase out the practice of ‘mixing zones’ in the Great Lakes,” she said.

The EPA estimated that of the approximately 600 major industrial and municipal facilities with disposal permits in the Great Lakes basin, about half discharge toxic chemicals into mixing zones.

Existing zones, according to the EPA, will be phased out over a 10-year period, and no new mixing is allowed.

Three of the eight Great Lakes states--New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania--will have 18 months to adopt the rule. The other five--Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin--already have outlawed mixing zones, the EPA said.