AWWA JAW72807

This past March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) unveiled a new strategy for drinking water regulation, proposing four major changes to the current process: address contaminants as a group rather than individually; encourage development of new treatment technologies to address health risks; use multiple statutes to protect drinking water; and, work with the states to share more complete data from system monitoring. Although the author believes that regulatory reform could be beneficial, he suggests what he believes to be a more practical and sustainable alternative to what USEPA has presented. The author provides four recommendations that would reduce the current number of regs, add a small number of new regs, expand the role of the Health Advisory Program, and provide guidance to the states for standardized regulatory applications. He notes that such changes to the current regulatory process would result in more efficient regulations and more health-based benchmark values, which would reduce uncertainties when trace contaminants are detected.

Includes 4 references.