In a speech on March 22, 2010, at the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) annual conference in Washington, D.C., EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced the agency is developing a broad new set of strategies to address how the agency makes decisions on water standards. EPA assessment of potentially harmful contaminants will be grouped by treatment technology. The plan would ultimately force water treatment facilities to purchase new treatment technologies for groups that are found to be worthy of controls, rather than react to haphazard requirements that require various technologies. The agency is also calling for an expansion of its powers under existing law.

The shift was described as 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.

"To confront emerging health threats, strained budgets and increased needs -- today's and tomorrow's drinking water challenges – we must use the law more effectively and promote new technologies," said Jackson. "That means fostering innovation that can increase cost-effective protection. It means finding win-win-win solutions for our health our environment and our economy. And it means broad collaboration. To make our drinking water systems work harder, we have to work smarter."

The 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. According to Jackson, 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 four carcinogenic chemicals that the agency announced its intentions to regulate, currently, there are ongoing efforts on 14 other drinking water standards. Among these, the EPA is considering further revisions to the lead and copper rule, with a particular focus on risks to children. The agency also has ongoing health risk assessments or information gathering for chromium, fluoride, arsenic and atrazine. The EPA continues to consider whether to regulate perchlorate.

Links

• More information on the strategy: