The Safe Drinking Water Act

All the PMBs are Hsted on the U.S. EPA s Toxic Substances Control Act NonConfidential Chemical Substances Inventory (Table 8). In the early to mid-1980s, pseudocumene, mesitylene, hemimellitene, and trimethylbenzene were coveted by TSCA Section 8(a) Preliminary Assessment Information Rule (PAIR) reporting requirements (22) and by TSCA Section 8(d) for health and safety data (23). Mesitylene is the subject of a test rule subacute oral toxicity and subchtonic oral toxicity in tats were underway in 1994 (24). The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) allows monitoring for pseudocumene and mesitylene at the discretion of the State (25). Of the PMBs, only pseudocumene is subject to SARA Tide III section 313 annual release reporting (26). 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, set the secondary contaminant level for silver ia drinking water at 0.1 mg/L (20). Secondary contaminants are not considered to be hazardous to health and thus the limits are not federally enforceable. 

Environmental Levels and Exposures. Barium constitutes about 0.04% of the earth s cmst (47). Agricultural soils contain Ba " in the range of several micrograms per gram. The Environmental Protection Agency, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, has set a limit for barium of 1 mg/L for municipal waters in the United States. 

MCLGs were not established before the 1986 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. Therefore, there is no MCLG for this contaminant. 

The Safe Drinking Water Act protects the quality of drinking water in the IJ.S. This law focu.ses on all waters actually or potentially designated for drinking use, whether above or below ground. The Act authorized EPA to establish safe standards of purity and required all owners or operators of public water systems to comply with primary (health-related) standards. State governments, that assume this power from EPA, also encourage attainment of secondary standards (nuisance-related). 

The Safe Drinking Water Act Aiiiendiiients of 1996 substantially revised file act. Among other changes, the 1996 law ... 

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)1-3 and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)1 2 4 protect the public from the risks created by past and recent chemical disposal practices. Cleanup of contaminated sites is needed in order to protect human and natural resources, as defined by the Clean Air Act,5 the Clean Water Act,6 the Safe Drinking Water Act,7 and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)89... 

We mentioned in Chapter 2 (Section 2.6.1) that a purge-and-trap procedure sometimes precedes an analysis by gas chromatography. An example of this procedure is found in the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, Water Treatment Plant Laboratory. Water treatment includes chlorination. When water is chlorinated, chlorine reacts with organic matter to form trihalomethanes (THMs), such as chloroform, bromoform, bromodichloromethane, and chlorod-ibromomethane. THMs in water are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, and so the laboratory must analyze the treated water to determine their concentration. 

Most water systems are required to monitor for radioactivity and certain radionuclides, and to meet maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for these contaminants, to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Currently, USEPA requires drinking water to meet MCLs for beta/photon emitters (includes gamma radiation), alpha particles, combined radium 226/228, and uranium. However, this monitoring is required only at entry points into the system. In addition, after the initial sampling requirements, only one sample is required every three to nine years, depending on the contaminant type and the initial concentrations. 

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), enacted in 1974 to assure high-quality water supplies through public water system. The act is truly the first federal intervention to set the limits of contaminants in drinking water. The 1986 amendments came two years after passage of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) or the RCRA amendments of 1984. As a result, certain statutory provisions were added to these 1986 amendments to reflect the changes made in the underground injection control (UIC) systems. 

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the main federal law that ensures the quality of the drinking water (US-EPA 2007b). 

The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments required EPA to set standards for 83 chemicals. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has been authorized by provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, as amended in 1986 and 1996, to establish drink- ... 

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