United States Office of Water
Environmental Protection Agency (4607)
EPA815-F-00-016
January 2001
Technical Fact Sheet: Final Rule for Arsenic in
Drinking Water
1. What are we announcing?
Today's final rule revises the current Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) from 50 ,ug/L to 10
Atg/L and sets a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) of zero for arsenic in drinking
water. In addition, this final rule also clarifies how compliance is demonstrated for many
inorganic and organic contaminants in drinking water.
2. What are the requirements of this final rule?
Both community water systems (CWSs) and non-transient, non-community water systems
(NTNCWSs) will be required to reduce the arsenic concentration in their drinking water systems
to 10 jugfL. A CWS is a public water system that serves at least 15 locations or 25 residents
regularly year round (e.g., most cities and towns, apartments, and mobile home parks with their
own water supplies). An NTNCWS is a public water system that is not a CWS and serves at
least 25 of the same people more than 6 months of the year (e.g., schools, churches, nursing
homes, and factories).
This final rule is also a vehicle for clarifying two compliance requirements for inorganic
contaminants (lOCs), volatile organic contaminants (VOCs), and synthetic organic contaminants
(SOCs). When a system fails to collect the required number of samples, compliance averages
will be based on the actual number of samples collected. Also, new public water systems and
systems using new sources of water must demonstrate compliance within State-specified time
and sampling frequencies.
3. How soon after publishing the final rule will the changes take effect?
All CWSs and all NTNCWSs that exceed the MCL of 10 Mg/L will be required to come into
compliance 5 years after the publication of the final rule. Beginning with reports that are due by
July 1 , 2002, all CWSs will begin providing health information and arsenic concentrations in
their annual consumer confidence report (CCR) for water that exceeds V2 the new MCL.
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4. Why is this rule significant?
In the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Congress directed EPA to
propose a new arsenic regulation by January 1, 2000 and to issue the final rule by January 1,
2001 (Congress subsequently extended the final rule date to June 22, 2001). EPA published the
proposed rule for arsenic on June 22, 2000. The rule proposed an MCL of 5 Aig/L for arsenic and
EPA took comment on regulatory options of 3 //g/L (the feasible level), 10 Aig/L and 20 Aig/L.
The 1996 amendments to SDWA added discretionary authority for the EPA Administrator to
adjust the maximum contaminant level (MCL) if the benefits would not justify the costs
(§1412(b)(6)). Today's rule is important because it is the second drinking water regulation in
which EPA will use the discretionary authority under § 1412(b)(6) of SWDA. After careful
consideration of the benefits and the costs, EPA has decided to set the drinking water standard
for arsenic higher than the technically feasible level of 3 Aig/L because EPA believes that the
costs would not justify the benefits at this level. EPA believes that the final .MCL of 10 Aig/L
maximizes health risk reduction at a cost justified by the benefits.
5. What health effects are associated with exposure to arsenic from drinking water?
In most drinking water sources, the inorganic form of arsenic tends to be more predominant than
organic forms. Inorganic arsenic in drinking water can exert toxic effects after acute (short-term)
or chronic (long-term) exposure. Although acute exposures to high doses of inorganic arsenic
can cause adverse effects, such exposures do not occur from public water systems in the U.S. that
are in compliance with the existing MCL of 50 ng/L. Today's final rule addresses the long-term,
chronic effects of exposure to low concentrations of inorganic arsenic in drinking water. Studies
link inorganic arsenic ingestion to a number of health effects. These health effects include:
Cancerous Effects: skin, bladder, lung, kidney, nasal passages, liver and prostate
cancer; and
• Non-cancerous effects: cardiovascular, pulmonary, immunological, neurological
and endocrine (e.g., diabetes) effects.
6. What are the sources of arsenic contamination in water?
The contamination of a drinking water source by arsenic can result from either natural or human
activities. Arsenic is an element that occurs naturally in rocks and soil, water, air, plants, and
animals. Volcanic activity, the erosion of rocks and minerals, and forest fires are natural sources
that can release arsenic into the environment. Although about 90 percent of the arsenic used by
industry in the United States is currently used for wood preservative purposes, arsenic is also
used in paints, drugs, dyes, soaps, metals and semi-conductors. Agricultural applications,
mining, and smelting also contribute to arsenic releases.
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7. How many people and how many systems will be affected by this rule?
Higher levels of arsenic tend to be found more in ground water sources than in surface water
sources (i.e., lakes and rivers) of drinking water. Compared to the rest of the United States, the
Western states have more systems with arsenic levels greater thanlO //g/L. Parts of the Midwest
and New England have some systems whose current arsenic levels are greater than 1-0 jUg/L, but
more systems with arsenic levels that range from 2-10 /ng/L of arsenic. While many systems
may not have detected arsenic in their drinking water above 10 /^g/L, there may be geographic
"hot spots" with systems that may have higher levels of arsenic than the predicted occurrence for
that area. About 3,000 (or 5.5 percent) of the nation's 54,000 CWSs and 1,100 (or 5.5 percent)
of the 20,000 NTNCWSs will need to take measures to lower arsenic in their drinking water. Of
the affected systems, 97 percent serve less than 10,000 people. Table 1 below shows the
estimated number of CWSs and NTNCWSs that would be affected by this rale and the estimated
population served by these public water systems.
Table 1. Estimates of the Number of CWSs and NTNCWSs
That Would Need to Treat and the Population Served by These Systems
Regulatory Action
10,ug/L
. lO^g/L
Type of System and
Total Number
CWSs (54,000)
NTNCWSs (20,000)
Number Systems
Affected
~ 3,000
~ 1,100
Total Population Served
by the Affected Systems
— 1 1 million
~ 1.7 million
8.
How much will this rule cost?
EPA estimates the total national annualized costs of treatment, monitoring, reporting,
recordkeeping, and administration for this rule to be approximately $ 181 million (using 1999
dollars at a three percent discount rate - Table 2). Most of the cost is due to the cost of installing
and operating the treatment technologies needed to reduce arsenic in public water systems (both
CWSs and NTNCWS). EPA estimates the total treatment cost to be approximately $ 177 million
per year. Annual monitoring and administrative costs will be about $2.7 million and States'
costs will be approximately $1 million.
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Table 2. Annual National System and State Compliance Costs
(3% Discount Rate, Smillions)
System Costs
Treatment
Monitoring/Administrative
State Costs
Total Cost
CWS
$170
$1.8
$0.9
$173
NTNCWS
$7.0
$0.9
$0.1
$8
Total
$177
$2.7
$1.0
$181
The average annual household costs for the homes served by the approximately 2,387 CWSs that
require treatment are expected to be approximately $32 per year. The average annual household
costs are shown categorized by system size in Table 3. The disparity in household costs between
systems sizes is due to economies of scale. Larger systems are able to spread the costs they incur
over a larger customer base.
Table 3. Total Annual Costs (Dollars) per Household for CWSs
System Size
Annual
Household
Costs
25-500
S327-S162
501-3,300
$ 71-558
3.3K-10K
$38
lOK-and above
S32-S0.86
The estimated average annual costs for CWSs, which exceed the final MCL of 10 /^g/L and are
required to treat, are shown in Table 4 categorized by system size.
Table 4: Average Annual Costs per CWS (Dollars)
CWS System Size
25-500
501-3,300
3,300-10,000
10,000 and above
Costs ($ )
$6,494-$12,358
$22,100-$53,086
$111,646
$53 1,584-$ 1,340,7 16
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9.
What are the benefits of this rule?
The rule will protect approximately 13 million Americans served by CWSs and NTNCWSs (this
number is based on reducing arsenic from 50 to 10 Mg/L). Reducing arsenic from 50 to 10 /^g/L
will prevent ~ 19-31 cases of bladder cancer and ~ 5-8 deaths due to bladder cancer per year.
EPA estimates that reducing arsenic from 50 to 10 /^g/L will prevent ~ 19-25 cases of lung
cancer and ~ 16-22 deaths due to lung cancer per year. In addition to these quantified benefits,
there are substantial non-quantified benefits of this rule, including reducing the incidences of
non-cancerous effects summarized above.
The quantified annual benefits for the today's rule range from $140 to $198 million. The benefit
range consists of both lower and upper bound estimates. These estimates reflect the upper and
lower bound of the risk range addresssed by this rule as well as different drinking water
consumption distributions that were used in our analysis.
10. Is there funding associated with this rule?
Since 1996, the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF) has made over $3.2
billion available for loans to help water systems improve their infrastructure. EPA also provides
funding to States that have primary enforcement responsibility for their drinking water programs
through the Public Water Systems Supervision (PWSS) grants program. Other federal funds are
available through Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant
Program, and the Rural Utilities Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the most
recent year, 2000, the DWSRF and Rural Utilities Service combined made $1.7 billion available
to States and public water systems for capital improvements and infrastructure needs.
11. How did EPA consult with stakeholders?
From 1997-1999, EPA conducted a number of Agency workgroup meetings on arsenic as well as
five stakeholder meetings across the country. Representatives of eight Federal agencies, 19 state
offices, 16 associations, 13 corporations, 14 consulting engineering companies, two
environmental organizations, three members of the press, 37 public utilities and cities, four
universities, and one Indian tribe attended the stakeholder meetings on arsenic. Five States also
provided written comments on implementation issues during the rule development process. The
Office of Water staff presented an overview of the arsenic rulemaking to over 900 Tribal
attendees in 1998 and provided more detailed information in 1999 to 25 Tribal council members
and water utility operators from 12 Indian tribes.
As part of the Small Business Regulatory and Enforcement Flexibility Act (SBREFA)
consultation process, EPA also received substantial input from discussions with small entity
representatives. The National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) provided useful
input, particularly on the benefits analysis and small systems affordability. We also posted
discussion papers produced for our stakeholder interactions on the Office of Ground Water and
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Drinking Water (OGWDW) Internet site and sent them directly to participants at stakeholder
meetings and others who expressed interest. In addition, EPA provided updates on our
rulemaking activities at national and regional meetings of various groups and trade associations.
Furthermore, we participated in technical workgroup meetings held by the American Water
Works Association (AWWA). EPA received comments from over 1,100 commenters from the
public on the proposed rule. EPA has considered these comments carefully, in developing
today's final rule for arsenic.
12. \VherecanthepubIicgetmoreinformationaboutthisfinaIrule?
For general information on arsenic in drinking water, contact the Safe Drinking Water Hotline, at
(800) 426-4791, or visit the EPA Safewater website at http ://www.epa. gov/safewater or the
arsenic website at http://wwav.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic.html.
In addition to this technical fact sheet, the following documents and fact sheets will be available
to the public at EPA's web site on arsenic in drinking water:
1. Federal Register noiice of the final arsenic regulation
2. Detailed technical support documents on Arsenic in Drinking Water
3. Consumer Fact Sheet on Arsenic in Drinking Water
A copy of the Federal Register notice of the final regulation or any of the technical and
consumer facts sheets can be obtained by contacting the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800)
426-4791 and (703) 285-1093. The Safe Drinking Water Hotline is open Monday through
Friday, excluding Federal holidays, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
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