Office of Water (4607M) EPA EPA 815F10001 March 2010 www.epa.gov/safewater 1

A New Approach to Protecting Drinking 

Water and Public Health 

EPA is seeking a new approach to expand public health protection for drinking water by going beyond 

the traditional framework that addresses contaminants one at a time. The Agency is initiating a national 

conversation to identify better ways to address contaminants in groups, improve drinking water 

technology, and more effectively address potential risks to give Americans greater confidence in the 

quality of their drinking water. 

EPA will focus on four principles that will provide greater protection of drinking water. The four 

principles are: 

 Address contaminants as a groups rather than one at a time so that enhancement of drinking 

water protection can be achieved cost-effectively. 

 Foster development of new drinking water technologies to address health risks posed by a 

broad array of contaminants. 

 Use the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water. 

 Partner with states to share more complete data from monitoring at public water systems 

(PWS). 

The current approach to drinking water protection is focused on a detailed assessment of each individual 

contaminant of concern and can take many years. This approach not only results in slow progress in 

addressing unregulated contaminants but also fails to take advantage of strategies for enhancing health 

protection cost-effectively, including advanced treatment technologies that address several contaminants 

at once. The outlined vision seeks to use existing authorities to achieve greater protection more quickly 

and cost-effectively. 

EPA will engage the public and stakeholders, including utilities, rural communities, and states, in 

developing the new approach. Over the next few months, the Agency will: 

 Hold public meetings, webcasts, and use EPA’s website to seek input. 

 Seek advice from the National Drinking Water Advisory Council. 

 Consult with the Science Advisory Board’s Drinking Water Committee 

 Host workshops on drinking water technologies. 

The Agency plans to seek input on four major elements listed below. 

1. Address contaminants as a groups rather than one at a time so that enhancement of 

drinking water protection can be achieved cost-effectively.

 Engage stakeholders and the public to develop technical and procedural approaches to 

group contaminants identify treatment technologies, and consider adverse health effects. 

 As appropriate, use an approach that addresses groups of similar contaminants to develop 

drinking water regulations. 
Office of Water (4607M) EPA EPA 815F10001 March 2010 www.epa.gov/safewater 2

2. Foster development of new drinking water technologies to address health risks posed by a 

broad array of contaminants. 

 

 Collaborate with universities, technology developers, and the private sector to develop 

water- and energy-efficient treatment technologies that can reliably reduce health risks 

and control the types of contaminants that confront utilities today and into the future. 

 Showcase field demonstrations of large and small water treatment systems that address a 

broad suite of contaminants while providing safe drinking water at reasonable and 

predictable costs in a sustainable fashion. 

3. Use the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water. 

 Use regulatory authority under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act 

(FIFRA) and Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) to ensure that decisions made for new 

and existing industrial chemicals are protective of drinking water and provide relevant 

health effects and exposure data. 

 Use FIFRA registration actions to develop risk assessments, generate missing data, and 

develop analytical methods to support the development of drinking water regulations. 

 Tighten FIFRA pesticide registration requirements when occurrence data approaches or 

exceeds levels of concern. 

 More fully explore EPA’s chemical action plans being developed and implemented to 

identify synergies that can help to improve and better understand drinking water quality. 

This can provide the opportunity to regulate contaminants before they get into drinking 

water. 

4. Partner with states to develop shared access to all public water systems (PWS) monitoring 

data. 

 Promote the use of advanced information technology to facilitate information and data 

exchange capability between States and EPA. 

 Enhance compilation and analyses of PWS information to strengthen the review of 

potential drinking water public health concerns without additional information collection 

burden and requests on states. 

 Share powerful data analysis tools with states to target public health issues, program 

oversight, compliance assistance, and enforcement to areas where risk to public health 

may be high. 

 Implement a range of interactive communication tools to enable states, drinking water 

industry, and consumers to learn more about their drinking water and get obtain timely 

information about the quality of drinking water and performance of drinking water 

systems. 

By pursuing these actions, EPA aims to: 

 Provide more robust public health protection in an open and transparent manner. 

 Assist small communities to identify cost and energy efficient treatment technologies. 

 Build consumer confidence by providing more efficient sustainable treatment technologies to 

deliver safe water at a reasonable cost.