815F07001
                   United States
                   Environmental Protection
                   Agency

Federal Register Notice:  Expedited Approval of Test Procedures
for the Analysis of Contaminants Under the Safe Drinking Water
Act; Analysis and Sampling Procedures

EPA is announcing plans to implement a new process for approving alternative testing
methods  for drinking water compliance samples.  After alternative testing methods are
evaluated and determined to be as effective as the promulgated methods, EPA will approve
them by publishing notices in the Federal Register, ratherthan using the traditional rulemaking
process.  This expedited method approval process will shorten the time between completing
the evaluation and allowing the method to be used to analyze compliance monitoring samples.
The goal  of this process is to make equally effective methods available to our stakeholders
more quickly.

Background

When EPA establishes a monitoring requirement for a drinking water contaminant, it also
specifies  at least one "reference" analytical method that can be used to determine the
contaminant's concentration in drinking water.  Public water systems must currently use a
testing method listed in the regulation when performing analyses of samples to
demonstrate compliance or for unregulated contaminant monitoring.

Reference methods that are incorporated into the regulation are approved through a
rulemaking process.  In  general, this means that EPA publishes a proposed rule, citing the
method along with a discussion of how the method can be used to analyze compliance
samples.  The method is proposed for approval in conjunction with monitoring requirements
for one or more specific contaminants. Public comment is solicited.  EPA then decides
whether to approve the method. If the method is deemed suitable, it is approved via a final
rule. Under that process, the method is not approved for analysis of samples until it is
referenced in a final rule.

Subsequent to the establishment of monitoring requirements,  EPA continues to evaluate
additional analytical methods as they become available. To date, when new or revised
testing methods were deemed suitable for analyzing compliance or unregulated
contaminant monitoring  samples, EPA approved them through the rulemaking process (i.e.,
by soliciting public comments through a rule proposal and issuing a final rule  after taking
those comments into consideration). EPA periodically issues  method update rules in order
to  approve additional testing methods.
Summary of Notice

The notice announces EPA's intent to implement an expedited approval process for
optional, alternative testing procedures used to measure contaminants in drinking water

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and seeks comments on options for implementing the process.

After a method is demonstrated to be suitable for analyzing monitoring samples for a
specific contaminant, and EPA determines it to be as effective as the originally promulgated
method, EPA will publish a notice in the Federal Register to announce that determination.
Alternative methods approved using the expedited process will be fully available to public
water systems for monitoring and reporting to the same extent as the methods that were
approved through the rulemaking process.

EPA is requesting comment on:
   •  how to make the list of methods approved under the expedited process available to
      the public
   •  the type of information that should be included with approval notifications
   •  the desirability of amending regulations to provide a pointer to the list of methods
      approved under the expedited process
   •  the format of the list of methods

Additional Information and Copies

You can learn more about the Expedited Method Approval Process for drinking water by
contacting Patricia Snyder Fair, Technical Support Center (MC-140), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Water, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, 26 West
Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati,  Ohio 45268; (e-mail: fair.pat@epa.gov).

You can view or download the  complete text of the Federal Register notice from the
Internet at: hrtjjVAvwiy^
OFFICE OF WATER (4606 M)   www.epa.qov/safewater   EPA 815-F-07-001   JANUARY 2007

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