The US Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to tighten drinking water standards
To mark Wolrd Water Day on Monday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency is creating stricter regulations for four compounds known to cause cancer: tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, acrylamide and epichlorohydrin.
She also said the agency is developing a new set of strategies to streamline decision-making and expand protection under existing law and promote cost-effective new technologies to meet the needs of rural, urban and other water-stressed communities.
The strategy is organized around four key principles:
- Address contaminants as a group rather than one at a time so that enhancement of drinking water protection can be achieved cost-effectively.
- Foster development of new drinking water treatment technologies to address health risks posed by a broad array of contaminants.
- Use the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water.
- Partner with states to share more complete data from monitoring at public water systems.
EPA’s current approach to drinking water protection is focused on a detailed assessment of each individual contaminant of concern and can take many years. This approach not only results in slow progress in addressing unregulated contaminants but also fails to take advantage of strategies for enhancing health protection cost-effectively, including advanced treatment technologies that address several contaminants at once.
In addition to the four contaminant announced Monday, there are ongoing efforts on 14 other drinking water standards. For example, EPA is considering further revisions to the lead and copper rule to address risks to children. EPA also has ongoing health risk assessments or information gathering for chromium, fluoride, arsenic, and atrazine.
EPA said it continues to consider whether to regulate perchlorate.
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