US says 93 chemicals may be water contaminants

20 February 2008 20:05  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified 93 chemicals on Wednesday that may be subject to regulatory restrictions as drinking water contaminants, including pesticides, solvents, plasticizers, foaming agents and industrial chemicals.

 

The agency issued a draft “contaminant candidate list” (CCL) that listed the 93 chemicals and 11 microbes as substances that may require regulation in the near future in the interest of maintaining safe supplies of drinking water across the country.

 

“EPA is casting a broader scientific net for potential regulation of chemicals and microbes in drinking water,” said Benjamin Grumbles, the agency’s assistant administrator for water.

 

Publication of the contaminant candidate list does not necessarily mean that any of the 93 listed chemicals will be subject to restrictions or prohibition, an agency spokesman said.

 

The list simply identifies “currently unregulated contaminants that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems and which may require regulation”, according to the EPA announcement.

 

The term “currently unregulated” means chemicals that are not now regulated under federal clean water requirements, although they might be regulated for other reasons under different federal laws.

 

Issuance of the list is required under the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act “as a mechanism to determine if new regulations are needed to protect drinking water”, the agency said.

 

“Under this process EPA conducts extensive research into the occurrence and health effects of the listed contaminants before issuing new regulations or standards,” the agency said.

 

The list is subject to public comment for 90 days. The agency will issue a final contaminant list at a later date and then decide whether regulatory action is required to ban or limit use of any substance on the final list.

 

Among the chemicals on the draft contaminant list are butadiene, butanol, benzyl chloride, ethylene glycol, methanol, toluene diisocyanate and urethane.

 

The formal EPA notice and the complete list of candidate contaminants is available on the agency’s Web site.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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