United States                   Office of Water          EPA 815-F-01-008
               Environmental Protection          (4607)                April 2001
               Agency                       Washington, DC 20460    www.epa.gov/safewater


4MEPA   Revisions to the Unregulated

              Contaminant  Monitoring Rule

             Fact Sheet

       EPA has revised the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR), as required by
    the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. The rule was published on
    September 17,  1999, and supplemented on March 2, 2000 and January 11, 2001. The data
    generated by the new UCMR will be used to evaluate and prioritize contaminants on the
    Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List, a list of contaminants EPA is considering for
    possible new drinking water standards. This data will help to ensure that future decisions on
    drinking water standards are based on sound science.
       The new rule includes:

    •   Three different lists of contaminants based on the availability of established analytical
       methods
    •   Requirements for all large public water systems (PWS) and a representative sample of
       small PWS to monitor for those contaminants on List 1
    •   Requirements for selected large and small PWS to monitor for those contaminants on List
       2
    •   Requirements to submit the monitoring data to EPA and the States for inclusion in the
       National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database
    °   Requirements to notify consumers of the availability of the results of monitoring
    •   Requirements to include detected contaminants in Consumer Confidence Reports

       The UCMR Monitoring List (see Table 1 below) includes all 34 contaminants in the
    Contaminant Candidate List,  Occurrence Priorities column, and two radionuclides that
    emerged during regulation development.  The UCMR Monitoring List is comprised of three
    separate lists based on analytical methods readiness and current contaminant occurrence data:
    List 1 for Assessment Monitoring, List 2 for Screening Surveys and List 3 for Pre-Screen
    Testing.
       The Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended in 1996, requires EPA to limit monitoring
    requirements to 30 contaminants in any 5-year cycle. Since many of the contaminants still
    have analytical methods under development, the success of the methods development efforts
    will dictate which contaminants will be monitored in the 5-year cycle. While the UCMR
    Monitoring List has 36 contaminants on it, the regulation will only require monitoring for the
    12 contaminants on List  1, beginning in 2001 at all large PWS and the selected small PWS.
    It also requires monitoring for the List 2 contaminants, which have methods listed, beginning
    in 2001.

    List 1 - Assessment Monitoring
       List 1 includes 12 chemical contaminants for  which analytical methods exist. EPA has
    information on their occurrence in drinking water for some PWS, but not a national estimate
    of their extent of occurrence.  Monitoring for List 1  contaminants at PWS  is the specific
    action resulting from the September 17, 1999 rule.
       Monitoring of List 1  (referred to as Assessment Monitoring) contaminants will occur at
    approximately 2,800 large PWS and a representative sample of 800 (out of 66,000) small

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 PWS. Transient water systems are not required to monitor nor are systems which purchase
 100% of their water.  The monitoring results from these systems will be used to estimate
 national occurrence of the 12 contaminants on List 1.  The 800 small systems will be selected
 at random from all small systems. Each State will have a number of systems allocated to it,
 based on population served.
     Surface water systems will monitor quarterly during a 1-year period and ground water
 systems will monitor twice in a 1-year period. Assessment Monitoring must be done within
 the three years of 2001 to 2003, which will allow coordination with the 3-year compliance
 (for regulated contaminants) monitoring cycle.  One of these quarterly or semiannual
 sampling events must occur in the most vulnerable period of May through  July, or an
 alternate vulnerable period designated by the State, to ensure monitoring of potentially higher
 contaminant concentrations.
    SDWA requires EPA to pay for the reasonable testing costs for the representative sample
 of small systems.  The estimated average annual cost for monitoring List 1  contaminants is
 $8.4 million, of which the average annual cost of the representative sample to EPA is $2.0
 million. The average costs to individual systems required  to monitor are: small systems
 serving 10,000 or fewer persons, $21; and large systems serving more than 10,000 persons,
 $1,730.

 List 2 - Screening Surveys
    List 2 contaminants are those for which analytical methods have just been developed and
 for which EPA has less occurrence data than the contaminants on List 1. There are  13
 organic chemicals  and one microorganism which must be monitored for List 2. Monitoring
 for List 2 (referred to as Screening Survey) contaminants will occur with the promulgation of
 the January 11, 2001 rule. The monitoring program will be the same as that for List 1, but
 only for a randomly selected set of 300 large and small systems. This will  occur in two
 phases. The Screening Survey for the 13 List 2 chemical contaminants will occur in 2001 at
 selected small systems and in 2002  at selected large systems. The Screening Survey for the
 List 2 microorganism (i.e., Aeromonas) will occur in 2003 (pending promulgation of a
 UCMR Methods Update Federal Register Notice (MUFRN)) for all selected systems.  Any
 occurrence of a List 2 contaminant may indicate the need for more extensive national
 monitoring and that this contaminant should be  included in the next cycle of List 1
 monitoring.

 List 3 - Pre-Screen Testing
    List 3 contaminants include seven microorganisms known to have health effects and two
 radionuclides. These contaminants  have recently emerged as drinking water concerns and, in
 most cases, only have methods in an early stage of development. Monitoring of List 3
 (referred to as Pre-Screen Testing) contaminants will be performed only after future
 rulemaking specifies methods.  It will need to be determined whether a listed contaminant
 occurs in sufficient frequency in the most vulnerable systems or sampling locations to
 warrant its being included in future Assessment Monitoring qr Screening Surveys. EPA will
 also be evaluating the method performance for List 3 contaminants. EPA will select up to
 200 large and small systems from State nominations of systems believed to be most
 vulnerable to List 3 contaminants. Because these methods are expected to be expensive,
 since they are labor intensive, the monitoring program will likely be implemented on a
 semiannual basis.

    The use of this  tiered approach for implementing the three monitoring lists provides the
maximum capability to monitor up to the statutory limit of no more than 30 contaminants in

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any 5-year monitoring cycle. Therefore, as List 3 contaminants are found to occur in PWS,
they may move up to List 2, and likewise, List 2 contaminants may move up to List 1, in
2004, when the UCMR is revised again. The law requires that EPA publish a new
contaminant monitoring list every 5 years.

State-EPA Implementation Partnership
    SDWA provides for State Monitoring Plans for small systems included in the national
representative sample. The rule provides the opportunity for States to work with these small
systems to ensure the highest data quality.  This opportunity includes  establishing a
Partnership Agreement between the State and EPA for States  to accept or modify the initial
monitoring plan, determine an alternate vulnerable monitoring time, modify the timing of
monitoring to coordinate with compliance monitoring, identify alternate sampling points,
notify systems of monitoring responsibilities, provide instructions to small systems,
participate in Screening Survey for List 2 and Pre-Screen Testing for  List 3, and provide
additional locational information for systems.
                           Table 1. UCMR Monitoring List
            LIST1
     Assessment Monitoring of
    Contaminants with Available
            Methods
 2,4-dinitrotoluene
 2,6-dinitrotoluene
 Acetochlor
 DCPA mono-acid degradate
 DCPA di-acid degradate
 4,4'-DDE
 EPTC
 Molinate
 MTBE
 Nitrobenzene
 Perchlorate
 Terbacil
         LIST 2
    Screening Surveys of
 Contaminants with Methods
      Just Developed
1,2-diphenylhydrazine
2-methyl-phenol
2,4-dichlorophenol
2,4-dinitrophenol
2,4,6- trichlorophenol
Diazinon
Disulfoton
Diuron
Fonofos
Linuron
Nitrobenzene
Prometon
Terbufos
Aeromonas1
Alachlor ESA2   .
RDX2
         LIST 3
   Pre-Screen Testing of
   Contaminants Needing
   Research on Methods2
Lead-210
Polonium-210
Cyanobacteria
Echoviruses
Coxsackieviruses
Helicobacter pylori
Microsporidia
Caliciviruses
Adenoviruses
1 Monitoring will occur pending promulgation of a UCMR MUFRN.
2 The monitoring period for Alachlor ESA, RDX and all List 3 contaminants will be
performed only after future rulemaking specifies methods.

Other Information
    For general information on the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation, contact
the Safe Drinking Water Hotline, at 800-426-4791.  The Safe Drinking Water Hotline is open
Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST.

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