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Stakeholder
Meeting Summary
Radon in Drinking Water
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
September 2, 1997
San Francisco, California
I. Background
The Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended in 1996, requires that the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdraw the 1991 proposed
rule for radon-222 and develop a final Maximum Contaminant Level Goal
and National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) by August of 2000.
The EPA is holding a series of meetings as initial opportunities for all
stakeholders to provide meaningful input during the regulatory process.
The one-day public meeting held in San Francisco, California on September
2, 1997 was part of a series of meetings, the
first held in Washington, DC on June 26, 1997, to discuss EPA's plans
for developing a proposed NPDWR for radon-222. EPA has solicited written
public comments after each meeting. Several participants at the San Francisco
meeting provided data on radon levels in drinking water in their area.
The meeting was attended by 41 stakeholders, plus a number of staff
from EPA's Region 9 office. Stakeholders included representatives of both
large and small public water systems mostly from California, but also
from Arizona, Montana, and Utah. Several California state government staff
attended (representing both indoor air and drinking water programs in
the Department of Health Services), as well as some California city representatives
and a representative from the Minnesota Department of Health. The Navajo
Tribe, the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, and the Intertribal Council of Arizona
were also represented. National groups represented included Clean Water
Action, the National Association of Water Companies, the National Council
of Negro Women, the National Rural Water Association, the National Safety
Council, and the U.S. Postal Service.
The goal of these initial meetings is to frame the following broad
range of issues associated with the radon-222 regulatory process: (1)
radon in drinking water regulation development (treatment technologies,
occurrence, analytical methods); (2) multimedia mitigation program; and
(3) stakeholder involvement processes. The meetings are intended to provide
a forum for stakeholder input to many key issues, which include, but may
not be limited to:
- Any new information or data;
- Issues and concerns related to rule development;
- Issues and concerns related to implementing a multimedia mitigation
program from the perspective of your state, water systems, public health
and safety organizations, environmental and public interest groups,
and the public; and
- Recommendations on the most beneficial points in the process for stakeholder
input and preferred approaches for stakeholder input.
II. Summary
Issues discussed at the San Francisco meeting included the following:
-
Treatment Technology:
- Costs of treatment methods, particularly for small water supply systems
and in cases where a permit and public hearings may be required
- Perceived risks of radon off-gassing from aeration treatment
- Approaches to managing risks from granular activated carbon treatment
-
Analytical Methods
- Impact of privatizing EPA's performance evaluation program for water
testing laboratories
- Need for training for individuals taking radon samples
-
Occurrence
- Effect of the sampling point in estimating national occurrence of
radon in drinking water
- Concern regarding potential underestimation of radon in small water
supply systems
- Effect of variability of radon levels measured in drinking water on
EPA's ability to estimate national occurrence and impacts of regulatory
options, and on water supply systems ability to implement compliance
measures
-
Monitoring and Compliance
- What monitoring requirements should be used, and how would compliance
be determined?
- How should margin of error in analytical method and radon-222's short
half-life be treated for compliance purposes?
- How should water supply systems that periodically blend ground water
and drinking water be asked to demonstrate compliance?
-
Multimedia Mitigation Program
- Approaches to assessing baseline and to measuring risk reduction from
multimedia programs
- Equity concerns, regarding public health protection for communities
that may not receive health benefits from reduced radon in drinking
water or indoor air.
- Role of states, tribes, and drinking water systems
-
Stakeholder Involvement Processes
- Interest in access to meeting announcements for National Academy of
Sciences Committee on Radon in Drinking Water
- Request that EPA and others make efforts to solicit input from consumers
of drinking water
- Interest in more in depth discussion on key issues, including multimedia
mitigation programs, treatment technology, and cost
III. Next Steps
The next stakeholder meeting will be held in Boston, Massachusetts
on October 30, 1997. To register, interested parties may contact the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
As part of a separate effort, EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking
Water is developing a framework for cost-benefit analysis that will apply
to the radon in drinking water regulation. The Agency is now evaluating
comments and materials provided by stakeholders, and will proceed to incorporate
this information into analyses to support development of the Health Risk
Reduction and Cost Analysis (to be published for public comment in February
1999) and the proposed rule (August 1999).
IV. Contact
For general questions on radon in drinking water, please contact
the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
For more detailed information or to provide information for consideration
in development of the radon in drinking water regulation, please contact:
Jennifer Wu, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 401 M St., S.W., 4607, Washington, D.C. 20460, or by
e-mail at wu.jennifer@epamail.epa.gov.
V. Related Links
A more detailed summary is available at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/ndwac/sum_rdws2b.html
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