WaterNews for August 6, 1999

WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water.

Inside this week's WaterNews:

1) National Academy of Sciences Releases Report on Hormonally Active Agents
2) NPDES Permit Applications Revised
3) National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database

1) National Academy of Sciences Releases Report on Hormonally Active Agents

On August 3, 1999, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on hormonally active agents. The report found that new studies need to be conducted to determine the effects that these chemicals, often called "endocrine disruptors," have on reproduction and development and other aspects of the biology of humans and wildlife.

For more information on the report, visit http://www.national-academies.org on the Internet.

2) NPDES Permit Applications Revised

EPA issued a final rule that amends permit application requirements and application forms for publicly owned treatment works and other treatment works treating domestic sewage. This rule consolidates Publicly Owned Treatment Works application requirements, including information regarding toxics monitoring, whole effluent toxicity testing, industrial user and hazardous waste contributions, and sewer collection system overflows. The most significant revisions require toxic monitoring by major Publicly Owned Treatment Works (and other pretreatment Publicly Owned Treatment Works) and limited pollutant monitoring by minor Publicly Owned Treatment Works.

For the federal register notice, visit http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/1999/August/Day-04/w18866.htm on the Internet

3) National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database

As a drinking water public right-to-know initiative, EPA has set up a National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database, the first national database to contain information on regulated and unregulated contaminants in public drinking water systems and their source water supplies. Accessible through the Internet, the database makes available data not previously accessible to the public about contaminants in drinking water. The database is a key provision of the l996 Safe Drinking Water Act, which directed EPA to assemble and maintain the database from information on the occurrence of both regulated and unregulated contaminants in public water systems and from reliable information from other public and private sources. It also will be used widely for public health, scientific and regulatory purposes.

The database is available at http://www.epa.gov/ncod/ on the Internet. For local drinking water quality information, visit http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo.htm on the Internet.

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