Drinking Water Quality Directive

Some EU Member States have also applied similar lifetime cancer risk estimates in judging tolerable risk levels. There is as yet no EU harmonized view on such default risk estimates at a policy level, although the starting point for the derivation of limit values for the general population in relation to the EU directives on ambient air and drinking water quality is the 10 lifetime risk for genotoxic carcinogens. 

In the EU Directive on Drinking Water Quality [35], 23 individual chemical parameters have specific limits together with two group limits for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pesticides. In the case of pesticides, no individual pesticide is permitted to exceed 0.1 pgL , and pesticides in total should not exceed 0.5 xgL" . These limits were a compromise, the original demand having been for a zero limit for pesticides in drinking water, and these standards were set, in 1998, as the effective analytical detection limit. The revision of this directive and its application to pharmaceuticals is currently under discussion, although it seems unlikely that specific limits will be set for individual pharmaceuticals [36]. 

The Directive lays down the organoleptic, physical, chemical, and microbiological requirements to be met by the quality of drinking water. The Directive requires Member States to carry out a regular monitoring of the quality of the water intended for human consumption according to the methods and minimum frequencies of analyses set out in the Directive. 

The municipal water supply is the same as tap water in the case of households, also referred to here as drinking water. Currently, Milan s water narrowly meets the EU standards as set by the 1980 European Commission Directive on Drinking Water Quality (80/778/EEC) and subsequently adopted in Italian law (DPR 236/88). The European Directive contains certain guidelines as well as maximum permissible concentrations for 71 parameters. The Italian interpretation includes conditions under which regional administrations can issue limited exemptions to water authorities regarding certain standards, in view of the extensive remedial measures and investment pressures created by the new standards (Funari et al.,... 

Since important decisions affecting the health and welfare of humanity must be made on the basis of analytical results, considerable effort must be directed toward assuring greater confidence in the reliability of the output of analytical laboratories. The Commission of the European Communities, after performing a study to determine the comparability of chemical analyses for drinking water quality, concluded that analytical quality control must be required as a routine component of analytical work. They state ( ), "Only the combination of intralaboratory controls of precision and accuracy complemented by interlaboratory intercomparison tests can lead to a significant evaluation and improvement of analytical results."... 

Surface waters Quality control of drinking water EEC Directive 75/AAO (12) WHO-Standard (70) EPA Quality Criteria for water (13)... 

De Zuane, J. 1997. Handbook of Drinking Water Quality, 2nd ed. New York Van Nostrand Reinhold. This handbook can be a quick reference for anyone dealing with water quality issues. Appendices include World Health Organization Guidelines and European Drinking Water Directives. 

In Fig. 42.9 we show the simulation results obtained by Janse [8] for a municipal laboratory for the quality assurance of drinking water. Simulated delays are in good agreement with the real delays in the laboratory. Unfortunately, the development of this simulation model took several man years which is prohibitive for a widespread application. Therefore one needs a simulator (or empty shell) with predefined objects and rules by which a laboratory manager would be capable to develop a specific model of his laboratory. Ideally such a simulator should be linked to or be integrated with the laboratory information management system in order to extract directly the attribute values. 

The Drinking Water Directive (EC 1998), concerns the quality of water intended for human consumption. The objective of the Drinking Water Directive is to protect the health of the consumers in the EU and to make sure the water is wholesome and clean (free of unacceptable taste, odor, color) and that it has a pleasant appearance (EC 2007a). 

The Commission assesses the results of water quality monitoring against the standards in the Drinking Water Directive. After each reporting cycle the Commission produces a synthesis report, which summarizes the quality of drinking water and its improvement at a European level. The synthesis reports are available to the public (EU 2007). 

Water samples (drinking water, rain, sea, river or waste water and others) have been characterized by ICP-MS with multi-element capability in respect to metal impurities (such as Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Na, Sb, Se, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Tl, Th, U, V and Zn) in many laboratories in routine mode with detection limits at the low ng I 1 range using ICP-QMS, and below by means of ICP-SFMS. Drinking water samples are controlled in respect of the European legislation (Council Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 on the quality of water intended for human consumption). For quality control of analytical data, certified standard reference materials e.g. drinking water standard (40CFR 141.51), river water reference material SLRS-4 or CASS-2 certified reference sea-water material and others are employed. 

AUDIENCE It is true some years ago we had recycled water in Dallas, and it was of highest quality or higher quality than the drinking water for the city of Dallas. However, the discussion was related to the propriety of tests to be run on the reuse water. The design and type of test used for drinking water are different than tests that have yet to be developed for recycled water. And the area that we directed our attention to at the time was the area of biology. We detected several viruses in the recycled water that were not detected in the drinking water. 

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