Under the Clean Water Act (CWA), EPA establishes national regulations (called effluent limitations guidelines and standards) to reduce discharges of pollutants from industries to surface waters and publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). Section 304(m) of the CWA requires EPA to publish a final Effluent Guidelines Program Plan every other year and to give the public an opportunity to comment on such plan before it is final. EPA selected the health services industry for further analysis in the 2006 Plan (EPA, 2006a) based in part on public concern about disposal of unused pharmaceuticals from health services facilities and information from other studies that investigated the presence and potential effects of pharmaceuticals in U.S. waters. EPA received 17 comments on the 2006 Plan that raised concerns about discharges from health services facilities. EPA divided the study of discharges from the health services industry into two study areas: (1) disposal of unused pharmaceuticals to surface water and (2) discharge of mercury from dental amalgam to surface water.

"EPA-821-R-08-013." "August 2008." Title taken from title screen (viewed Oct 8, 2008).