the availability of the results of their unregu-
lated contaminant monitoring. This notice will
be issued either in the customers' water bills or
by written notice.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you are concerned about the presence of
these unregulated contaminants in your
drinking water supply, here are a few sugges-
tions:
• FIRST, identify your public water supplier.
If you pay a water bill, the supplier's name,
address, and telephone number should be
on the bill. If you do not pay a water bill,
contact your landlord, building manager, or
local health department — they should
know.
• SECOND, contact your public water
supplier. Inquire about your supplier's
monitoring for unregulated contaminants
—For which of the set of 51 unregulated
contaminants are they required to monitor?
Has the monitoring program been com-
pleted? If not, when will it be completed?
Remember, the monitoring schedule is
determined by the size of the system. If you
have not yet received notice from your
supplier, ask when and how you can get a
copy of the monitoring results.
• FINALLY if your water supplier is unable
to answer your questions and provide the
information you need, contact the state
drinking water program, or the Safe Drink-
ing Water Hotline. Your state drinking
water program is usually located in the
state capital (or another major city), and is
often part of the department of health or
environmental regulation. Consult the blue
"government pages" of your local phone
book for the proper address and phone
number, or call the Safe Drinking Water
Hotline.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the unregulated
contaminant monitoring program, including
the lists of the contaminants to be monitored
and a list of health advisories that have been
written/are available for many of these
contaminants, write:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Drinking Water
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460
Or Call: The Safe Drinking Water Hotline
800-426-4791 or 202-382-5533
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
August 1989
EPA 570/W9-FFF
Office of Water (WH-550A)
dEPA Unregulated
Contaminant
Monitoring:
A Special
Program to
Help Public
Water Systems
Protect Your
Drinking Water
Printed on Recycled Paper
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WHAT ARE UNREGULATED
CONTAMINANTS?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has established National Primary
Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs) for 34
drinking water contaminants. Among these
34 "regulated contaminants" are certain heavy
metals, microbiological organisms, pesticides,
radionuclides, and volatile synthetic organic
chemicals (VOCs). Public water systems are
responsible for compliance with the regula-
tions that are established — both by EPA and
the states — for these contaminants.
"Unregulated contaminants" is the term EPA
uses to specify additional contaminants that
must be monitored by public water systems.
They are considered "unregulated", because
EPA has not yet established enforceable
drinking water standards for these contami-
nants.
WHY MONITOR FOR UNREGU-
LATED CONTAMINANTS?
In recent years, many organic and inorganic
chemical contaminants have been found in
our nation's drinking water. Accidental spills
and leaks, improper storage and disposal,
industrial discharges, and agricultural and
urban runoff all act as contributing sources of
these harmful contaminants. In fact, studies
show that hundreds of different contaminants
have been detected. Certainly all of these
contaminants are not present in every water
supply across the country, but the potential
for contamination of water supplies is great
enough to cause concern.
As a result, the Safe Drinking Water Act
Amendments of 1986 mandate EPA to
develop regulations requiring every public
water system to conduct a monitoring pro-
gram for "unregulated contaminants." The
principal goal of this monitoring program is to
determine the quality of drinking water in
public water systems across the country. Such
a program would:
• Enhance public awareness of drinking water
quality, and in particular, show how wide-
spread a given contaminant is found;
• Encourage control actions—where appropri-
ate—before standards can be issued and
implemented; and
• Provide information for the development of
standards for additional contaminants.
SETTING STANDARDS AND
GATHERING INFORMATION
The 1986 Amendments required EPA to de-
velop drinking water standard* for a total of 83
contaminants. The list of 83 contaminants
includes both currently regulated contaminants
and unregulated contaminants. EPA is also
required to develop regulations for at least an
additional 25 contaminants every 3 years
starting in 1991.
Given these requirements to develop regula-
tions, EPA must gather much information
quickly. Prior to the 1986 Amendments, a
number of monitoring activities were con-
ducted to assess the quality of drinking water
in the United States. These activities included
monitoring by public water systems for compli-
ance with drinking water standards, EPA
surveys of selected drinking water supplies,
State surveys, responses to contamination, and
independent research.
Despite these efforts, and despite that many of
the largest systems (serving a large number of
people) have voluntarily tested for unregulated
contaminants, most public water systems are
not aware of the possible contamination of
their drinking water supplies by contaminants
other than those for which standards have
been established.
In fact, the Government Accounting Office
(GAO) estimates that only about 16,000 of the
more than 60,000 community water systems
have tested their supplies under official testing
programs for any unregulated contaminants.
As a result, much remains to be learned about
the quality and safety of our public drinking
water. The "unregulated contaminant"
monitoring program is intended to provide the
information EPA needs to develop the re-
quired drinking water standards.
THE MONITORING PROGRAM
In the July 8,1987 Federal Register (52 FR
25715), EPA established monitoring require-
ments for 51 unregulated synthetic organic
chemicals. The initial monitoring period will
be conducted according to a "phased in"
schedule, depending on the number of persons
served by the system. Following is the sched-
ule:
Size of System Monitoring to begin by:
Over 10,000
3300 to 10,000
Less than 3,300
January 1, 1988
January 1, 1989
January 1, 1991
CNote: monitoring will be conducted quarterly for one year)
While there are 51 contaminants on the list, all
systems will not be required to monitor for all
of them. The monitoring regulations separate
the unregulated contaminants into three lists,
as follows:
List 1: 34 contaminants (to be monitored by
all systems)
List 2: 2 contaminants (to be monitored by a
system only if the State determines
that the system is susceptible to
contamination by either or both of
the contaminants)
List 3: 15 contaminants (to be monitored by
a system only if required by the
State)
In addition to the initial set of 51 unregulated
contaminants, EPA has proposed monitoring
requirements for an additional 113 unregu-
lated contaminants. These proposed regula-
tions appeared in the May 22,1989, Federal
Register (54 FR 22062).
The data from the unregulated contaminant
monitoring program will assist EPA in
several ways:
• FIRST, the data will be used to determine
whether drinking water regulations are
needed for any or all of the contaminants.
• SECOND, if regulations are needed, the
monitoring data will help EPA establish
either the appropriate maximum contami-
nant levels (MCLs) or treatment tech-
niques for the contaminant(s).
• FINALLY, if any or all of the contami-
nants become regulated, public water
systems will usually be able to use
unregulated contaminant monitoring data
to determine whether they are in compli-
ance with the (new) drinking water
regulations.
Another important feature of the unregu-
lated contaminant monitoring program is the
availability of results to the general public.
The regulations issued in July 1987 require
public water systems to notify customers of
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