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Human Health Criteria
Methylmercury Fish Tissue Criterion
Draft Implementation Guidance
This document provides technical guidance to States and authorized Tribes on how they may want to use the January 2001 fish tissue-based recommended water quality criterion for methylmercury in surface water protection programs (e.g., TMDLs, NPDES permitting). The draft guidance addresses questions related to water quality standards adoption (e.g., site-specific criteria, variances), assessments, monitoring, TMDLs, and NPDES permitting. The guidance consolidates existing EPA guidance where relevant to mercury.
- Fact sheet (August 2006)
- USEPA. 2006. Draft Guidance for Implementing the January 2001 Methylmercury Water Quality Criterion. (EPA 823-B-04-001)
EPA's Mercury home page provides a broad range of information about mercury.
Criterion
The criterion is a concentration of methylmercury in fish that we calculated to protect human health. States and tribes may use the criterion as the basis for establishing water quality standards.
- Fact Sheet with questions and answers describing the criterion for methylmercury.
- Methylmercury Criteria Document January 2001; EPA-823-R-01-001
- Federal Register Notice (January 8, 2001)
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
Historical Information
- Federal Register Notice of Intent To Develop Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Protection of Human Health--Arsenic, Methylmercury, and Carbofuran; Notice of Data Availability; Request for Data and Information (October 12, 2000)
- References
This list is a compilation of references currently used in the draft Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Methylmercury. It is subdivided into sections including human health, bioaccumulation, and chemical translators.