City Water Treatment
What is a Public Water Systems (PWS)?:
The public drinking water systems are regulated by the EPA under the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. These public drinking water systems provide drinking water to 90 percent of Americans. Public drinking water system may be publicly-owned or privately-owned and serves at least 25 people or 15 service connections for at least 60 days per year. Through the Public Water System Supervision program, the EPA implements and enforces drinking water standards to protect public health.
Public Water System Sampling and Reporting Mandates:
The EPA has stringient sampling and reporting mandates for public water systems. If you want to know what contaminants are in your drinking water, check your annual water quality report from your water supplier or call the water supplier directly. If you want to have additional tests on your water, you should use a laboratory certified by the state. Call the state certification officer or visit the EPA site to get a list of certified labs.
Is My Water is Safe?
Public water utilities, federal, state and local governments have established watershed and wellhead protection programs to prevent substances from contaminating their wells. Similarly, some surface water systems protect the watershed around their reservoir to prevent contamination. States and water suppliers are working to assess every source of drinking water and to identify potential sources of contaminants. This process will help communities to protect their drinking water supplies from contamination.
US EPA Drinking Water Standards:
The US EPA has a long list, 103 in total, of drinking water standards. The EPA groups the regulations in two classifications, National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, NPDWRs or Primary Standards, and National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations, NSDWRs or Secondary Standards.
The Primary Standards are legally enforceable standards that apply to public water systems. Primary standards protect public health by limiting the levels of contaminants in drinking water.
The Secondary Standards are non-enforceable guidelines regulating contaminants that may cause cosmetic effects, like skin or tooth discoloration, or aesthetic effects, like taste, odor, or color, in drinking water. The EPA recommends these secondary standards to water systems, but does not require systems to comply. However, states may choose to adopt them as enforceable standards.
On this list, there are 87 Primary Drinking Water Standards which detail the potential health effects from exposure above the Maximum Contaminant Level, or MCL. There are an additional 15 Secondary Drinking Water Standards. This list of primary regulations is color-coded to clearly show drinking water contaminants from Inorganic Chemicals, Organic Chemicals, Disinfectants, Disinfection Byproducts, Microorganisms, and Radionuclides. While virtually any material in water in sufficient quantity can cause illness, the 87 primary regulations target the worst offenders. |
