What's In the Water You Drink? 

ENS 11feb98

WASHINGTON, DC - Drinking water providers in the United States will soon be required to tell consumers where their water comes from and exactly what contaminants it contains. These Consumer Confidence reports would be mailed to most consumers at least once a year by their drinking water suppliers.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner today announced a newly proposed rule that will provide "a snapshot of practical information for consumers to help them make informed personal choices about their drinking water," the Agency said in a statement.

Consumer Confidence Reports must tell consumers:

• what rivers, lakes or underground aquifers are the sources of their drinking water
  
  

• what, if any, contaminants have been found in local drinking water and whether or not they exceed EPA's numerical safety standards called Maximum Contaminant Levels
  
  

• what types of human activities or natural sources likely caused any contamination
  
  

• how to get the results of a required State evaluation of their system's vulnerability to contamination once it is completed. This report is called the "source water assessment."
  
  

• how to get more information on these topics
  
  

• information on how vulnerable populations can avoid Cryptosporidium

When the level of a contaminant exceeds EPA safety standards, the report will explain:

• the health risks in drinking water containing that contaminant
  
  

• what actions were taken to remedy the violation

The Consumer Confidence Report is the centerpiece of the public information provisions of the amended Safe Drinking Water Act signed into law in August 1996. The new law was based on the Clinton administration's 1993 reform proposal and includes the first-ever revolving loan fund for drinking water treatment infrastructure and protection for drinking water sources.

In a briefing for reporters on the new rule today, Browner said, "Fifty-six thousand water systems will participate, with information available to more than 240 million people across the country. This includes those most vulnerable - the elderly, people with weakened immune systems, AIDS patients and others who need to make the most informed decisions possible about their drinking water."

The new rule comes none too soon for pregnant women. According to a study published in the February 18 edition of the journal Epidemiology, a link has been found between drinking chlorinated tap water and miscarriage.

Pregnant women in their first trimester who drink five or more glasses of cold tap water daily may be at higher risk of miscarriage, according to the study of California chlorinated drinking water.

The heightened risk is linked to exposure to a contaminant found in chlorinated water in a majority of municipal water systems nationwide. The chemical - trihalomethane (TTHM) - forms when chlorine reacts with acids from plant material.

Chlorine helps purify water and prevents bacterial infections. TTHMs have been associated with increased cancer risk, at least in animals, and federal regulators have limited the amount allowed in drinking water.

The study, led by California health department investigators Kirsten Waller and Shanna Swann, examined the records of 5,144 pregnant women from the Fontana, Santa Clara and Walnut Creek areas. All the women drank water that met state and federal drinking standards.

"You do run a risk if drinking unboiled water," said S. David Freeman, the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, America's largest municipal utility.

"Nobody knows how high," he said. "The most practical thing that we've come up with is to tell women in that category to boil some water and put it in the refrigerator."

State and federal officials said the study is not definitive and more tests are planned.

"Protecting public health is the first priority of North American community water systems," said Bevin Beaudet, president of the American Water Works Association, in response to the California study linking drinking water containing a disinfection by-product called trihalomethanes (THMs) and instances of miscarriage.

The American Water Works Association, founded in 1881 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, has 54,000 members including scientists, engineers, environmentalists, public health experts, educators and water managers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"Although we have not yet seen the complete study, we take it very seriously,"Beaudet said. "We are particularly troubled about the potential connection between any disinfection method and risk to public health. Since we began disinfecting water at the turn of the century, waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera have been virtually eliminated. That is why any link between disinfectants we use to treat water and negative effects to public health is especially disturbing and of great concern to water utilities everywhere," said Beaudet.

Research on THMs and other disinfection by-products has been under way since the early 1970s. The AWWA Research Foundation has spent over $140 million on drinking water research in the last decade.

The EPA is asking for public comment on the rule regarding Consumer Confidence Reports for the next 45 days. Written comments can be sent to: CCR Comment Clerk, Water Docket MC-4101 (docket #W-97-18), U.S. EPA, 401 M Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20460. The EPA's drinking water website is: http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW