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USEPA finalizes next contaminant list for regulation
The US Environmental Protection Agency has finalized the Contaminant Candidate List 3, a list of drinking water contaminants that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems. The agency will determine by 2013 whether to propose new regulations for some of the 116 contaminants.
The agency released a pre-publication version of the rule after Peter Silva, USEPA's assistant administrator for water, signed it Sept. 23. This final CCL3 contains 116 contaminants versus the 104 contained in a draft published in February 2008 — 104 chemical contaminants or groups and 12 microbes. Among them are pesticides, disinfection by-products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals used in commerce, waterborne pathogens and algal toxins. The CCL is used as the starting point for the regulatory development process, and USEPA will select at least five contaminants from the final CCL3 to make its third round of regulatory determinations by 2013. The changes were made between the draft and the final list: - Two cancelled pesticides were removed — nitrofen and ethion.
- One perflourinated compound was added — perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS).
- Ten pharmaceuticals were added:
- One antibiotic — erythromycin.
- Nine hormones — 17 alpha-estradiol, 17 beta-estradiol, equilenin, equilin, estriol, estrone, ethinyl estradiol, mestranol and norethindrone.
- Two potential disinfection by-products were added — chlorate and bromochloromethane (also known as Halon 1011).
- Two pathogens were removed — Vibrio cholera and Entamoeba hystolytica.
- Three pathogens were added — Adenovirus, Enterovirus and Mycobacterium avium.
The final list also added a table on data needs for CCL3 contaminants in order to make future regulatory determinations. This table provides a general characterization of the health effects, occurrence and analytical method data needs. Also, "Risk indexes for draft Contaminant Candidate List 3 chemicals," an article in the September 2009 issue of Journal AWWA, describes a risk index approach to organizing and visualizing all of the occurrence and toxicity data for CCL3 contaminants. This approach has the potential to inform future decisions for the third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3) and the third round of regulatory determinations. This project was a partnership between the Water Industry Technical Action Fund (WITAF) and the Water Research Foundation. USEPA evaluated approximately 7,500 chemicals and microbes. The 116 candidates for the final list were selected based on their potential to pose health risks through drinking water exposure, the agency said in a Sept. 23 news release. The draft CCL3 was published for review and comment Feb. 21, 2008. The agency says it considered the best available health effects and occurrence data and information to evaluate unregulated contaminants along with information provided in comments on the draft before developing the final CCL3. AWWA has been regularly contributing comments on CCL. The Safe Drinking Water Act directs USEPA to publish a CCL every five years. Previous lists were published in 1998 and 2005. The law requires that USEPA make regulatory determinations for at least five contaminants from the most recent CCL every five years. Additional AWWA Resources
Posted: 09/29/2009
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