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Arsenic in Drinking Water |  |
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Rule-Making History
Minor Clarification of National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for Arsenic - Final RuleOn March 25, 2003 EPA affirmed that the public health standard for arsenic in drinking water established in January 2001 is 10 parts per billion (ppb). The action made clear that when a monitoring result is expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/L) rather than ppb, that any monitoring result greater than 0.010 mg/l is a violation of the January 2001 arsenic standard. To assure that this clarification extends to the regulatory text for arsenic and to remove any implementation uncertainty relating to this issue, EPA has amendended the arsenic Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) to express it as 0.010 mg/l.
Report to CongressThe Agency's report to Congress, "Small System Arsenic Implementation Issues", may be viewed or downloaded at this link along with a synopsis of the report. This March 2002 report describes three major activities that address an Agency review of national-level affordability criteria for drinking water rules and small systems implementation issues related to the new arsenic in drinking water standard.
Review of the 10ppb StandardAfter publishing the final arsenic rule on January 22, 2001, EPA postponed the effective date of the rule until February 22, 2002, requested public comment on the standard, and began reviewing the new standard, the science, costs and benefits analyses that supported the regulation. “[A]s announced by the Administrator on October 31, 2001, EPA will not further postpone the January 2001 rule, and EPA also does not expect to take any other additional action relative to the July 2001 proposal in the interim (April 17, 2002 Federal Register notice, 67 FR 19030, footnote 3 of Table III-2 at 19037).” The Agency will continue to evaluate the three expert panel reports discussed below, public comments on the standard and the reports, and other relevant information as they become available. EPA expects to make a final decision on whether to revise the January 2001 rule as part of the next six-year review of drinking water standards, which is due in August 2008. Three Expert Panel ReviewsReports and recommendations on the science, cost of compliance, and benefits analyses in support of the 10 ppb final arsenic in drinking water rule were made available for review and public comment until October 31, 2001. These reports were prepared by independent, expert panels convened by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, and the EPA Science Advisory Board.
Request for comment on the new Arsenic standardOn July 19, 2001 (66 FR 37617), EPA issued a proposal to request comment on whether the data and technical analyses associated with the January 2001 arsenic rule support setting the arsenic standard at 3 ppb, 5 ppb, 10 ppb, or 20 ppb. On August 16, 2001, EPA provided a separate docket electronic mail (e-mail) address, ow-arsenic-docket@epa.gov, to help the Agency process comments on the July 19th proposed rule. The comment period closed October 31, 2001.
Health effects and risk review
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