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assessment of health risks to recreational users. Leadership by State and local 

 governments as well as persons benefiting from the recreational water resources is 

 essential and should be the driving force in the establishment and implementation 

 of standards, monitoring, and enforcement of microbiological protection based 

 upon the scientific data. The stakeholders must be involved in the difficult 

 decisions of recognizing the hazards, determining acceptable risk levels, and 

 providing the means to reduce pollution or to notify/close recreational areas to 

 protect the public's health. 



Water Quality Criteria and Standards 



As with the earlier beach bills passed by the House of Representatives, 

 Section 3 of the bill requires EPA to provide criteria for pathogens to be used in 

 assessing coastal recreation waters. EPA's existing 1986 recreational water 

 criteria (using enterococci and E. coU bacteria) are designed to be protective for 

 pathogenic microorganisms that cause acute gastrointestinal diseases which 

 originate in human fecal matter (such as would occur from sewage sources). 

 These illnesses are caused by exposure principally through oral uptake from 

 immersion of the head in water. 



Additional studies would be needed to identify indicator organisms, perform 

 epidemiological studies, and establish criteria that would be protective for other 

 types of fecally transmitted microbial diseases, such as hepatitis A, and other viral 

 and protozoan diseases. 



