关键词: 水质标准, 水质基准, 经济分析, 环境管理, 污染控制, 排放标准

Abstract:

As the cornerstone of national water ecological environment management, water quality standard is not only an important foundation for water quality monitoring, evaluation and management, but also the goal of water pollution control and ecological restoration. Water quality standards (WQS) of the USA, after decades of continuous improvement and modification, has formed a relatively perfect system, which has made positive contributions to the improvement of water quality and the protection of ecological health in the United States. The water quality standards of the United States, as legal provisions, mainly include the designated uses, water quality criteria necessary to protect the designated uses, antidegradation and general policies. They are used to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of Nation’s waters, and achieve a water quality level that provides protection and propagation for fish, shellfish and wildlife, as well as entertainment functions. However, the researches on WQS in China started relatively late, and the relevant system construction are still in continuous exploration and improvement. In addition, China's current water quality standards mainly referred to foreign water quality criteria and standards, which have certain limitations, such as the lack of special water quality standards for the protection of aquatic organisms, the insufficient protection of aquatic organisms for some pollution index, and without considering regional differences, which need to be further revised and improved. The technical regulations, key contents, concepts, objectives and related legal systems of WQS in USA are systematically summarized in this paper. Besides, the reference significance for the WQS research in China was discussed, including: (1) The water quality standards should be formulated according to different use functions, considering regional differences and seasonal changes of aquatic system; (2) The possible pollution of bioaccumulative chemicals should be concerned during investigation of the water quality standards; (3) The environmental emission standards should be derived based on the water quality standards of surface waters. The results of the study could provide guidance for the WQS derivation/revision and aquatic environmental management in China.

Key words: water quality standards, water quality criteria, economic analysis, environmental management, pollution control, emission standard