In January 2001, EPA published a new standard for arsenic in drinking water that requires public water supplies to reduce arsenic to 10 ppb by 2006. The Bush administration has been criticized for reversing itself on various other environmental policies it supported during the election. This is the first time that arsenic has been linked to the same trouble. About 3,000 US communities are dependent upon drinking water found to contain trace amounts of arsenic that may make them sick. Higher levels of arsenic tend to occur in ground water sources, aquifers, rather than lakes or streams.
Arsenic levels vary from region to region within a state.
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