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Water Headlines for April 13, 2007Benjamin H. Grumbles Water Headlines is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water. In This Week’s Water Headlines:
New Wastewater Funding for TribesA new program brochure will help tribal officials and tribal assistance providers gain a better understanding of the Clean Water Indian Set-Aside Grant Program. The Clean Water Indian Set-Aside Grant Program: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions provides easy to find information about project eligibility, program administration and regional program contacts. The brochure is available for download from the Clean Water Indian Set-Aside home page: http://www.epa.gov/owm/mab/indian/cwisa.htm. New Cost Estimating Tool to Help Small Drinking Water Systems Evaluate Point of Use and Point of Entry Treatment DevicesEPA is releasing a cost estimating tool to help small drinking water systems and States evaluate cost of Point-of-Use (POU) or Point-of-Entry (POE) treatment devices as a small system compliance strategy. This tool is a companion to EPA’s guidance document which was released in June 2006. POU drinking water treatment devices are typically installed under a kitchen sink and remove contaminants such as arsenic, lead, and radium. POE drinking water treatment devices are usually installed outside the home or business and able to treat an even wider variety of contaminants, as well as viruses and bacteria (microbes) that can cause acute health problems. Depending on the site-specific conditions, the contaminant to be treated and the technology chosen to treat it, these treatment devices offer the potential to significantly reduce costs for small treatment systems. The POU/POE tool and 2006 guidance manual are available on EPA’s Safewater web site at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/smallsys/ssinfo.htm. Expedited Approval of Test Procedures for the Analysis of Contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act; Analysis and Sampling ProceduresEPA has published in the Federal Register notice of plans to expedite approval of testing methods after evaluation of their effectiveness as alternatives to the promulgated drinking water methods. Under this approach, EPA will periodically publish notices in the Federal Register rather than using a formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process. EPA plans to use this streamlined authority to make additional methods available for analyzing drinking water compliance and unregulated contaminant monitoring samples. "This expedited approach will provide public water systems, laboratories, and primacy agencies with more timely access to new measurement techniques and greater flexibility in selecting of analytical methods, thereby reducing monitoring costs while maintaining public health protection," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. EPA has developed this approach to respond to stakeholder concerns. EPA will take comments on the proposal through June 11, 2007. For more information: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/new.html EPA Determination on 11 ContaminantsThe U.S. EPA has made a preliminary determination not to regulate 11 contaminants on the second drinking water contaminant candidate list (CCL). The agency's preliminary regulatory determination, based on an extensive review of health effects and occurrence data, concludes that the specific contaminants do not occur at levels of public health concern in public water systems. "We are confident that the science-based approach we are using to identify potential contaminants for regulation will ensure public health is protected. For perchlorate and MTBE, we are continuing to move aggressively to work with our federal partners to gather the information we need to make decisions," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. The 11 contaminants include naturally occurring substances, pesticides, herbicides and chemicals used (or once used) in manufacturing. EPA monitored eight of the contaminants during the first round of the unregulated contaminant monitoring program and the remaining three during previous occurrence surveys. While none of the contaminants were found nationally at levels of public health concern, EPA is recommending that health advisories for seven of the contaminants be updated to provide local officials with current health information for situations where the contaminants may occur. The Agency will take comments for 60 days following publication of a notice in the Federal Register. The notice and additional information on the preliminary regulatory determinations can be found at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/ccl/reg_determine2.html. Subscribe to Water HeadlinesPlease forward this message to your friends and colleagues who share an interest in water-related issues and would like to hear from EPA"s Office of Water. To subscribe to the Water Headlines listserve: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe Water Headlines first name last name (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe Water Headlines Robert Jones)
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