1900
No standards for drinking water
1914 - U.S. Public health services
Established first standards for waterborne microbes. Bacteria, viruses, that cause disease, cholera, typhoid and dysentery.
1970 - EPA was created to
Protect human health and safe guard the environment
1972
Organic contaminants become more wide spread through USA
1974
Safe Drinking Water Act is signed into law
USEPA sets new drinking water acts
1979
T-THM set at 100 ppb, NOW 80 ppb quarterly average
1986
Legislation now requires USEPA to set national standards, require monitoring and reporting, establish uniform guidelines.
1996
Legislation, congress reauthorizes SDWA, more federal funding is made available.
1998
Disinfectant/=disinfection by-product rule (DBPR)
2009
Groundwater rule, set sampling and testing rules for GW systems
2010
New approach to SDWA, addresses contaminants as a group
Safe drinking water act gave the federal government (through the EPA) the authority to
- Set national standards regulating the level of contaminants in drinking water
- Require public water systems to monitor and reporting the levels of their identified contaminants
-Establish uniform guidelines specifying the acceptable treatment technologies for removing unsafe levels of pollutants from drinking water
Primacy
The responsibility for ensuring that a law is implemented, and the authority to enforce the law and the related regulations
2010 Safe drinking water act changes
- Addresses contaminants as a group rather than one at a time
- Promoting the development of new drinking water treatment technologies to address health risks
- Using the authority of multiple statues to help protect drinking water
- partnering with states to share data collected from monitoring drinking water systems
Tier 1 violation
Public notification required within 24 hours
Violation potentially immediate effect on human health
Ex: occurrence of a fecal coliform/ E. Coli and total coliform in consecutive samples from the same site.
Tier 2 violation
Notice required within 30 days
Violation of a state standard or water that hasn’t been treated properly used but poses no immediate risk to human health
Tier 3 violation
Notice required within 1 year
Violation of a drinking water standard that does not have a direct impact on public health
Acute health risk
Requires notification by radio and television notices within 24 hours
Primary contaminant
Contaminants that may pose a health risk. Grouped into inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, radionuclides and microorganisms
Secondary contaminant
Non-enforceable guidelines that establish recommendations for contaminants that may cause cosmetic effects such as skin or tooth discoloration and aesthetic effects such as taste, odor and color
The purpose of the Arsenic rule
To improve public health by reducing exposure to arsenic in drinking water.
Reduce MCL of Arsenic to 10ppb (all samples must be collected at each entry point to the distribution system)
1998 stage-1 Disinfectant byproduct rule
The purpose of the rule is to reduce the exposure to DBP’s. Some DBP’s have shown to cause cancer and reproductive effects in laboratory studies.
2005 stage-2 Disinfectant byproduct rule
Purpose of the rule is to reduce the potentially harmful DBP’s that end up in the drinking water system
