Will A New Drinking Water Rule Help Protect Public Health?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to revise a national primary drinking water regulation to achieve greater public health protection against waterborne pathogens in the distribution systems of public water systems. Waterborne pathogens can cause a variety of illnesses with symptoms such as acute abdominal discomfort or in more extreme cases, kidney failure, hepatitis or chronic concerns.
The revised rule will better protect people from potential exposure to dangerous microbes because it requires water systems to take action when monitoring results indicate that contamination or a pathway to contamination may be present.
They aren’t already?!
Water utilities are required to regularly monitor for microbial contamination in the distribution system. Although microbes detected in monitoring are not necessarily pathogens themselves, the detection can indicate that there is a pathway that would allow pathogens to enter the system, such as a water main break or an opening in a storage tank.
A study by the Ralph Nader Research Institute found that U.S. drinking water contains more than 2,100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer.
From the study: There are many causes of tap water contamination, ranging from agricultural runoff, to improper use of household chemicals, and everything in between. Few of us realize the extent or impact of these low level synthetic chemicals in the water we use. While the standard use in our society of over 80‚000 different synthetic chemicals has offered added convenience and productivity to our lives‚ it has also come at a tremendous price… drastic increases in degenerative disease.
The EPA proposal also allows for incentives for better system operation by improving the criteria for public water systems to qualify for and stay on reduced monitoring, which provides an opportunity to reduce system burden. In addition, the proposed rule updates conditions that will trigger public notices to better represent the relative health threat identified. It also makes the wording required in these public notices more clear.
The EPA is seeking public comment on this proposed rule for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. Click here for more information about how you can make your opinion heard.
Image Credit: Flickr – joshme17
water conservation should be done because we are already having some water shortage these days~,~
water conservation is really needed nowadays because of the growing population