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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
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Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants

Committee on Drinking Water Contaminants

Water Science and Technology Board

Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology

Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.
1999

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

Support for this project was provided by the Environmental Protection Agency under contract no. X-826345-01-0.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 98-88191

International Standard Book Number 0-309-06293-4

Additional copies of this report are available from:
National Academy Press
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW Box 285 Washington, D.C. 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area) http://www.nap.edu

Copyright 1999 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

COMMITTEE ON DRINKING WATER CONTAMINANTS

WARREN R. MUIR, Chair,

Hampshire Research Institute, Alexandria, Virginia

R. RHODES TRUSSELL, Vice-Chair,

Montgomery Watson, Inc., Pasadena, California

FRANK J. BOVE,

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Atlanta, Georgia

LAWRENCE J. FISCHER,

Michigan State University, East Lansing

WALTER GIGER,

Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Zurich

BRANDEN B. JOHNSON,

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Trenton

NANCY K. KIM,

Center for Environmental Health, Albany, New York

MICHAEL J. MCGUIRE,

McGuire Environmental Consultants, Santa Monica, California

DAVID M. OZONOFF,

Boston University, Massachusetts

CATHERINE A. PETERS,

Princeton University, New Jersey

JOAN B. ROSE,

University of South Florida, St. Petersburg

PHILIP C. SINGER,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

DEBORAH L. SWACKHAMER,

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

PAUL G. TRATNYEK,

Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, Portland

Staff

JACQUELINE A. MACDONALD, Study Director

CAROL A. MACZKA, Director,

BEST Toxicology and Risk Assessment Program

MARK C. GIBSON, Research Associate

KIMBERLY A. SWARTZ, Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BOARD

HENRY J. VAUX, JR., Chair,

University of California, Riverside

CAROL A. JOHNSTON, Vice-Chair,

University of Minnesota, Duluth

RICHELLE ALLEN-KING,

Washington State University, Pullman

JOHN S. BOYER,

University of Delaware, Lewes

JOHN BRISCOE,

The World Bank, Washington, D.C.

DENISE FORT,

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

EVILLE GORHAM,

University of Minnesota, St. Paul

CHARLES D. D. HOWARD,

Charles Howard & Associates, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

WILLIAM A. JURY,

University of California, Riverside

WILLIAM M. LEWIS, JR.,

University of Colorado, Boulder

GARY S. LOGSDON,

Black & Veatch, Cincinnati, Ohio

RICHARD G. LUTHY,

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

JOHN W. MORRIS,

J. W. Morris, Ltd., Arlington, Virginia

CHARLES R. O'MELIA,

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

PHILIP A. PALMER,

DuPont Engineering, Wilmington, Delaware

REBECCA T. PARKIN,

The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

JOAN B. ROSE,

University of South Florida, St. Petersburg

ERIC F. WOOD,

Princeton University, New Jersey

Staff

STEPHEN D. PARKER, Director

JACQUELINE A. MACDONALD, Associate Director

CHRIS ELFRING, Senior Staff Officer

LAURA J. EHLERS, Staff Officer

JEFFREY W. JACOBS, Staff Officer

JEANNE M. AQUILINO, Administrative Associate

MARK C. GIBSON, Research Associate

ANITA A. HALL, Administrative Assistant

ELLEN A. DE GUZMAN, Senior Project Assistant

KIMBERLY A. SWARTZ, Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

BOARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND TOXICOLOGY

GORDON ORIANS, Chair,

University of Washington, Seattle

DONALD MATTISON, Vice-Chair,

University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

DAVID ALLEN,

University of Texas, Austin

MAY R. BERENBAUM,

University of Illinois, Urbana

EULA BINGHAM,

University of Cincinnati, Ohio

PAUL BUSCH,

Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., White Plains, New York

PETER L. DEFUR,

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond

DAVID L. EATON,

University of Washington, Seattle

ROBERT A. FROSCH,

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

JOHN GERHART,

University of California, Berkeley

MARK HARWELL,

University of Miami, Florida

ROGENE HENDERSON,

Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico

CAROL HENRY,

American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D.C.

BARBARA HULKA,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

DANIEL KREWSKI,

Health Canada and University of Ottawa, Ontario

JAMES A. MACMAHON,

Utah State University, Logan

MARIO J. MOLINA,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

WARREN MUIR,

Hampshire Research Institute, Alexandria, Virginia

CHARLES O'MELIA,

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

KIRK SMITH,

University of California, Berkeley

MARGARET STRAND,

Bayh, Connaughton and Malone, Washington, D.C.

GERALD N. WOGAN,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

TERRY F. YOSIE,

Ruder Finn, Inc., Washington, D.C.

Staff

JAMES J. REISA, Director

DAVID J. POLICANSKY, Associate Director and Program Director for Applied Ecology

CAROL A. MACZKA, Program Director for Toxicology and Risk Assessment

LEE R. PAULSON, Program Director for Resource Management

RAYMOND A. WASSEL, Program Director for Environmental Sciences and Engineering

KULBIR BAKSHI, Program Director for the Committee on Toxicology

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES

GEORGE M. HORNBERGER, Chair,

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

PATRICK R. ATKINS,

Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

JERRY F. FRANKLIN,

University of Washington, Seattle

B. JOHN GARRICK,

PLG, Inc., Newport Beach, California

THOMAS E. GRAEDEL,

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

DEBRA KNOPMAN,

Progressive Foundation, Washington, D.C.

KAI N. LEE,

Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts

JUDITH E. MCDOWELL,

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts

RICHARD A. MESERVE,

Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C.

HUGH C. MORRIS,

Canadian Global Change Program, Delta, British Columbia

RAYMOND A. PRICE,

Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario

H. RONALD PULLIAM,

University of Georgia, Athens

THOMAS C. SCHELLING,

University of Maryland, College Park

VICTORIA J. TSCHINKEL,

Landers and Parsons, Tallahassee, Florida

E-AN ZEN,

University of Maryland, College Park

MARY LOU ZOBACK,

United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California

Staff

ROBERT M. HAMILTON, Executive Director

GREGORY H. SYMMES, Assistant Executive Director

JEANETTE SPOON, Administrative & Financial Officer

SANDI FITZPATRICK, Administrative Associate

MARQUITA SMITH, Administrative Assistant/Technology Analyst

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

Preface

Americans expect to be able to drink the water that comes from their taps without fear for their safety. While this expectation has been largely fulfilled in this century, on occasions and in certain systems, chemicals and microbes still contaminate drinking water supplies in the United States. Thus, continuing vigilance is necessary to assure that important drinking water contaminants are identified and appropriately addressed.

In 1996, Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, substantially revising the way in which public water supplies are regulated. Among the amendments is a requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develop a list of currently unregulated contaminants that may pose risks in drinking water. Every five years, EPA must decide whether to regulate at least five of those contaminants and whether to conduct additional monitoring and research for the others. The first of these lists, known as the Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL), was published by EPA in March of 1998.

EPA has asked the National Research Council (NRC) for assistance in addressing three aspects of this effort:

  1. developing a scientifically sound approach for deciding whether or not to regulate contaminants on the current and future CCLs,
  2. convening a workshop that will focus on emerging drinking water contaminants and the database that should be created to support future decision making on such contaminants, and
  3. creating a scientifically sound approach for developing future CCLs.
Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
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This report, written by the NRC's Committee on Drinking Water Contaminants, addresses the first of these topics. It includes a review of ten different governmental and private schemes used to rank environmental contaminants in other contexts to identify whether, and in what manner, such schemes might apply to the three tasks being addressed by the committee. The committee consists of 14 volunteer experts in water treatment engineering, water chemistry, analytical chemistry, microbiology, toxicology, public health, epidemiology, risk assessment, and risk communication. This report's findings are based on a review of relevant technical literature, information gathered at two committee meetings, and the expertise of committee members. The committee will address the remaining two topics in subsequent reports.

On behalf of the committee, I wish to thank Jim Taft, Evelyn Washington, and Chuck Job of EPA for supporting this important three-phased review. In addition, thanks go to William Carpenter, attorney and member of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council's Working Group on Occurrence and Contaminant Selection; Stephen Clark, EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water; and Thomas Yohe, Philadelphia Suburban Water Company. All of these individuals made presentations and supplied valuable background information at the first committee meeting.

This report has been reviewed, in accordance with NRC procedures, by individuals chosen for their expertise and broad perspectives on the issues addressed herein. The purpose of this review is to provide independent, candid, and critical comments that will help the NRC to be assured that the report is sound and meets the NRC's standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft report remain confidential to protect the deliberative process by which the report was developed. The committee wishes to thank the following people for their participation in this review and for their many constructive comments: Richard Bull, Washington State University and Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory; Gunther Craun, Gunther F. Craun & Associates, Staunton, Virginia; Joseph Delfino, University of Florida; George Hornberger, University of Virginia; Eric Olson, National Resources Defense Council; David Reckhow, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Robert Spear, University of California, Berkeley; and Thomas Yohe, Philadelphia Suburban Water Company. Notwithstanding this review, however, the final content of this report is the responsibility of the Committee on Drinking Water Contaminants.

I speak for the whole committee in thanking the very capable and professional NRC staff for the assistance we have received throughout our deliberations and during report preparation. In particular, I want to acknowledge the outstanding efforts we have received from


Jacqueline MacDonald, study director and associate director, Water Science and Technology Board (WSTB),

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
×

Carol Maczka, director of toxicology and risk assessment programs, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology,

Mark Gibson, research associate, WSTB, and Kimberly Swartz, project assistant, WSTB.


These staff members worked extraordinarily hard and effectively to help us produce this report in a very short time, in order to be of maximum utility to EPA as it moves forward to implement the recently enacted drinking water protection mandates.

Finally, I want to thank the diverse and talented members of the committee, who were able to bring together their diverse perspectives and broad expertise to produce this report. I look forward to continuing to work with this wonderful group in making a contribution to addressing the second and third phases of our effort.

WARREN R. MUIR, Ph.D.

CHAIR, COMMITTEE ON DRINKING WATER CONTAMINANTS

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6294.
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Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants

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The provision of safe drinking water has been an important factor in the improvement of the health status of U.S. communities since the turn of the last century. Nonetheless, outbreaks of waterborne disease and incidences of chemical contamination of drinking water continue to occur.

Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants recommends a new process for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use in deciding which potential drinking water contaminants should be regulated in public water supplies to provide the greatest protection against waterborne illnesses. The book covers chemical and microbiological contaminants and includes a historical review of past approaches to setting priorities for drinking water contaminants and other environmental pollutants. It emphasizes the need for expert judgment in this process and for a conservative approach that considers public health protection as the first priority.

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