EPA - 21-E-0264 - 21-E-0264_1

Develop an agencywide strategic action plan, including milestones, to direct the EPA’s efforts to maintain and enhance a national program to forecast, monitor, and respond to freshwater harmful algal blooms. This plan should incorporate strategies for: (a) identifying knowledge gaps; (b) closing identified knowledge gaps, particularly related to health risks from exposure to cyanotoxins in drinking water and during recreational activities; (c) monitoring and tracking harmful algal blooms; (d) enhancing the EPA’s national leadership role in addressing freshwater algal blooms;(e) coordinating EPA activities internally and with states; and (f) assessing the health risks from exposure to cyanotoxins in drinking water and during recreational activities and establishing additional criteria, standards, andadvisories, as the scientific information allows.