This past March, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA) unveiled a new
strategy for drinking water regulation, proposing
four major changes to the current
process: address contaminants as a group
rather than individually; encourage development
of new treatment technologies to
address health risks; use multiple statutes
to protect drinking water; and, work with
the states to share more complete data from
system monitoring. Although the author
believes that regulatory reform could be
beneficial, he suggests what he believes to be
a more practical and sustainable alternative
to what USEPA has presented.
The author provides four recommendations
that would reduce the current number of
regs, add a small number of new regs,
expand the role of the Health Advisory Program,
and provide guidance to the states
for standardized regulatory applications. He
notes that such changes to the current regulatory
process would result in more efficient
regulations and more health-based benchmark
values, which would reduce uncertainties
when trace contaminants are detected.Includes 4 references.