OMB Weighs EPA Water Monitoring Rule, A Key Test For Cr6 Standards

摘要

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reviewing EPA's final rule requiring water utilities to monitor for unregulated contaminants, a rule that the agency has suggested could provide data to determine how to craft first-time standards for hexavalent chromium (Cr6) — a widespread contaminant present in many water supplies. OMB formally received the unregulated contaminant monitoring rule (UCMR) Dec. 9, according to the office's website. The UCMR is the result of a Safe Drinking Water Act mandate that requires EPA to determine every five years a list of no more than 30 contaminants that are suspected to be in drinking water but for which no health-based regulatory standards exist. Utilities then must monitor for these contaminants for a few years, and EPA uses the data to help determine whether new drinking water standards are needed. The third UCMR list is due in early 2012.