Consumer Confidence Report Working Group - April 3 & 4, 1997
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Westin Hotel, Washington, D.C.
The Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) Working Group, formed under the
National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), met April 3rd and 4th
for its second session. All members except Cathryn Harris and the Honorable
Lucille Brogden attended the meeting. The group discussed the notes from
the California CCR meetings, and reviewed the first draft of the CCR regulation.
Asked for their overall reaction to the draft regulation and their major
issues, the working group listed the following general issues for discussion:
- To what extent should contamination sources be addressed?
- Should a standard template be used and should the data be filed electronically?
- Who is the audience of the reports?
- How should contaminants and contaminants not tested in a given year
be treated?
Working group members then proceeded with a line-by-line review and discussion
of the draft regulation. A common theme that emerged from the discussion
was the dilemma between the importance of brevity and simplicity of the
report and the need for good, explanatory information. In addition, working
group members repeatedly emphasized the importance of the readability
of the report. Several members suggested that various good ideas should
be included in a guidance and not in the regulation to ensure flexibility.
For the next working group meeting, EPA agreed to prepare a more complete
second draft of the regulation and a sample report. Since a meeting of
the full NDWAC will take place before the next scheduled working group
meeting, members agreed to seek input from the full NDWAC on the following
issues:
- How much information about sources of contamination should be included
in the reports?
- What kind of information should be included about future decisions
by utilities (e.g. upcoming decisions about exemptions and variances)?
- What role should state/EPA play in assuring compliance with the CCR?
- What should be the uses of the CCR data in connection to the statutory
requirement that EPA develop a national occurrence data base?
- How can utilities most effectively get the CCR information to non-English
speaking audiences?
- Should a CCR template be required or used as a "sample"?.
The CCR Working Group will meet again on May 8 - 9, 1997, at the Dupont
Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C.
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