Water Lines Safe DKIiMdNG . Water H4tlii>(c September 2002 Monthly Report SDW Hotline Report In This Issue What's New? 1 Monthly Trends 1 Frequently Asked Qs & As 2 Did You Know? 3 Hotline Stats 4 Appendix A 6 Top Ten Topics Questions Percent of Topic (phone & Total* email) Questions Local Drinking Water 295 10 Quality Tap Water Testing 260** 9 Household Wells 183 6 Unregulated 163 5 Contaminant Monitoring Rule Coliforms 159 5 Home Water 155 5 Treatment Units Other EPA Programs 151 5 Lead 149 5 Other Drinking Water 139 5 Background Consumer 113 4 Confidence Report *A total of 3,004 questions were answered by the Hotline (via telephone and email) in September 2002. **Citizens who obtain their drinking water from private household wells asked 35% of the tap water testing questions. Published Monthly See past reports at http://intranet.epa.gov/ow/hotline Safe Drinking Water Hotline: National Toll-free No.: (800) 426-4791 or (877) EPAWATER For More Information Contact: Harriet Hubbard, EPA Project Officer (202) 564-4621 Operated by Booz Allen Hamilton Under Contract #GS-10F-0090J What's New Announcements: ¦ U.S. EPA is announcing a solicitation for cost-effective technologies and/or engineering solutions to remove arsenic from small drinking water systems. Additional information and application materials are now available at es.epa.gov/ncer/ rfa/current/2003arsenic.html New Publications: ¦ The Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap Analysis, EPA816-R-02-020, is now available at epa.gov/owm/ featinfo.htm. ¦ Consider The Source: A Pocket Guide to Protecting Your Drinking Water—Drinking Water Pocket Guide #3, EPA816-K-02- 002, is now available at www.epa.gov/safewater/protect/s wpocket.html or by contacting the Safe Drinking Water Hotline. ¦ Filter Backwash Recycling Rule: A Rule Summary for Systems, EPA816-R-02-013, is now available at epa.gov/ safewater/filterbackwash.htm or by contacting the Safe Drinking Water Hotline. ¦ The final Implementation Guidance for the Arsenic Rule— Drinking Water Regulations for Arsenic and Clarifications to Compliance and New Source Contaminants Monitoring, EPA816-K-02-018, is now available at epa.gov/ safewater/ars/implement.html or by contacting the Safe Drinking Water Hotline. ¦ Protecting Drinking Water Through Underground Injection Control: Drinking Water Pocket Guide #2, EPA816-K-02-001, is now available at epa.gov/ safewater/uic/uicpocket.html or by contacting the Safe Drinking Water Hotline. Add This To Your Calendar: ¦ The Safe Drinking Water Hotline continues to take registrations for the Surface Water Treatment Rules training workshop scheduled for November 6-7, 2002, in San Francisco, California. Monthly Trends In March 2002, EPA began accepting vulnerability assessment grant applications from publicly owned community water systems regularly serving more than 100,000 persons. During the period April through September, April had the greatest number of security related questions and May the least. The drop in quantity over these two months may be a function of the April 29, 2002, due date for vulnerability assessment grant applications. On June 12, 2002, Title IV of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (P. L. 107-188) amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to require public water system vulnerability assessments and emergency response plans. This law may have redirected interest in PWS security as the total number of security questions received at the Hotline increased in June, July, and August, before declining in September. Humber ofOuenions Adding to the increased attention to water security issues in July and August, EPA announced in July that grant applications from additional large publicly owned systems would be accepted through August 9, 2002, and that applications for privately owned community water systems regularly serving over 100,000 persons would be accepted through August 30, 2002. urily Planning Grant Other Security bs uea ------- September 2002 Frequently Asked Qs & As This section provides answers to frequently asked questions not necessarily represented in one of the Top Ten Topic categories. Q: The owner or operator of a Class I injection well is required to comply with the testing and monitoring requirements defined in the Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulations (40 CFR 146.68). Do these requirements include a provision for monitoring ground water quality? A: Ground water quality monitoring may be required if there is a possibility of fluids moving into or between underground sources of drinking water (USDW). The decision to require this monitoring is based on a site specific assessment of the well or injection zone and the potential value of monitoring wells to detect such movement (40 CFR 146.8(e)). Q: The Radionuclides Rule requires compliance with the MCL for radium 226/228. Could a public water system use point-of-use (POU) treatment, point-of-entry (POE) treatment, or bottled water for compliance with the MCL? A: POU ion exchange and POU reverse osmosis are listed as small system compliance technologies for combined radium 226/228; no POE technologies are listed. Public water systems are not authorized to use bottled water to comply with an MCL. Bottled water may only be used on a temporary basis to avoid unreasonable risk to health (65 FR 76708,76727; December 7, 2000). Q: Must a public water system that uses ground water monitor for radon? If so, where must the compliance monitoring occur? A: The SDWA "Radon Rule" has not yet been finalized. However, according to a November 2, 1999, proposed rule, all community water systems that use ground water would be required to monitor for radon at each entry point to the distribution system, after treatment and storage (64 FR 59246, 59252). Q: The Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR) requires the use of EPA's electronic reporting system (Central Data Exchange, or CDX) for purposes of UCMR data reporting (40 CFR 141.35(e)). Can a public water system or laboratory that does not have access to the electronic reporting system use an alternative reporting method? A: Public water systems and laboratories participating in UCMR that do not have access to the Internet can establish an alternative process for UCMR reporting by contacting the EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Branch at 202-260-4934. EPA expects that very few large systems or laboratories will not have the ability to access the CDX via the Internet and encourages PWSs and laboratories without Internet access to utilize computer equipment at local libraries (Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Reporting Guidance, EPA815-R-01-029; November 2001). Q: The CDX registration requirements include the submission of a sponsor letter confirming which individual(s) at the organization will have access to the PWS data and what level of access each individual will have (Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Reporting Guidance, EPA815-R-01-029; November 2001). Is there a template or example sponsor letter available? A: An example sponsor letter for a public water system and for a laboratory can be downloaded from EPA's CDX Web site at the following URL: http://cdx.epa.gov/FAQ.asp - ucmr. Q: Owners and operators of Class V motor vehicle waste disposal wells located in regulated areas are required to close the well or seek a waiver and obtain a permit (40 CFR 144.88). In some instances the UIC director may allow the conversion of a Class V motor vehicle waste disposal well to another kind of Class V well (40 CFR 144.89(b)). Is a federal permit required for such a conversion? A: No. There are no specific federal permitting requirements for Class V well conversions; this is at the discretion of the UIC Program Director -2- ------- September 2002 0Conversion of a Motor Vehicle Waste Disposal Well; EPA816-R-00-017, November 2000). Q: On January 22, 2001, EPA published a final rule lowering the arsenic maximum contaminant level from 50ppb (parts per billion) to 10ppb (66 FR 6976). Is the MCL based on total arsenic or inorganic arsenic? A: The MCL for arsenic in drinking water is based on total arsenic including both organic and inorganic forms (66 FR 6976, 7046; January 22, 2001). Q: My annual water quality report indicates that my public water system (PWS) was in violation of the copper treatment technique requirements during the past year. I never received information or notification about this violation. Is a PWS required to provide public notification when there is a treatment technique violation for copper? If so, how soon after the violation must the notification be provided? A: A PWS must provide public notice about a treatment technique violation as soon as practical, but no later than thirty days after the system learns of the violation. Under appropriate circumstances, the primacy agency may grant up to 3 additional months for the initial notice (40 CFR 141.203(b)(1)). Did You Know? The oil from a single oil change (1 gallon) can ruin the taste of a million gallons of drinking water (Minnesota Department of Environmental Assistance; www. moea .state. mn. us/red u ce/oi I .cfm) -3- ------- September 2002 Monthly Summary of Hotline Service Total number of calls answered 2,061 Total number of emails received 329 Average wait time (in seconds) 0:16 Percent of calls satisfied immediately 99.9% Percent of all calls answered in < 1 min 93.6% Percent of callbacks answered in 5 days 100% Percent of emails answered in 5 days 100% Number of times callers listened to recorded message about local DW quality 1,309 Number of times callers listened to recorded message about arsenic rule 78 Comparison to Previous Years Calls Emails September 2002 2,061 329 September 2001 1,530 385 Top Ten Referrals Inquiry Referred to: Number of Referrals Percent of Total* Referrals *1,882 total referrals to other resources, agencies, and organizations were provided by the Hotline in September 2002. 1. EPA Internet 271 14 2. State Lab Certification 228 12 3. State PWSS 215 11 4. Local Water System 207 11 5. NSF/WQA/UL 182 10 6. AGWT/WSC 97 5 7. Local Public Health 95 5 8. Non-EPA Internet 76 4 9. Other Hotlines 75 4 10. EPA Regions 65 3 Hotline Statistics Customer Profiles Customer Calls Emails Analytical Laboratories 27 3 Citizen - Private Well 290 44 Citizen - PWS 1,153 132 Consultants/lndustry/Trade (DW) 106 27 Consultants/lndustry/Trade (Other) 47 30 Environmental Groups 2 3 EPA 36 1 Other Federal Agency 16 4 Government, Local 15 6 Government, State 46 6 Government, Tribal 0 0 Spanish Speaking 3 1 International 4 18 Media 3 0 Medical Professional 6 5 Public Water System 226 14 Schools/University 49 34 Other 32 1 TOTALS 2,061 329 Daily Call Data Total Calls Average Wait Time Answered mm:sec 3-September 120 00:10 4-September 87 00:11 5-September 135 00:23 6-September 84 00:18 9-September 113 00:13 10-September 97 00:14 11-September 94 00:16 12-September 94 00:11 13-September 74 00:13 16-September 131 00:18 17-September 114 00:14 18-September 96 00:13 19-September 76 00:12 20-September 94 00:15 23-September 109 00:28 24-September 116 00:12 25-September 114 00:20 26-September 122 00:20 27-September 88 00:16 30-September 103 00:10 TOTALS 2,061 00:16 -4- ------- September 2002 Topic Categories Category Calls Emails Microbials/Disinfection Byproducts Chlorine 23 5 Coliforms 142 17 Cryptosporidium 47 0 Disinfection/Disinfection Byproducts (Other) 10 2 Disinfection - Home Water 23 5 Other Microbials 19 0 Surface Water Treatment (SWTR, ESWTR, LT1FBR) 15 4 Trihalomethane (THM) 16 1 Inorganic Chemicals (IOC)/Synthetic Organic Chemicals (SOC) Arsenic 44 12 Fluoride 19 2 Methyl-ferf/a/y-butyl-ether (MTBE) 8 0 Perchlorate 3 0 Phase I, II & V 58 15 Sodium Monitoring 8 6 Sulfate 9 1 Lead and Copper Copper 15 5 Lead 141 8 Lead Contamination Control Act (LCCA)/Lead Ban 3 0 Radionuclides Radionuclides (Other) 24 4 Radionuclides (Radon) 90 8 Secondary DW Regulations Secondary DW Regulations 54 10 SDWA Background/Overview Definitions & Applicability 33 8 MCL List 48 5 Other Background 114 25 SDWA 22 2 Hotline Statistics Category Calls Emails Water on Tap 25 2 Other DW Regulations Analytical Methods (DW) 23 6 Contaminant Candidate List/ Drinking Water Priority List 1 0 Consumer Confidence Report (DW) 105 8 DW Primacy (PWS) 2 0 Operator (PWS) Certification 3 3 Other Drinking Water Security 10 7 Public Notification (PWS) 44 4 Security Planning Grants 16 7 State Revolving Fund (DW) 1 3 Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) 160 3 Other Drinking Water Additives Program 2 1 Bottled Water 44 5 Complaints about PWS 52 11 Compliance & Enforcement (PWS) 17 4 Home Water Treatment Units 137 18 Infrastructure/Cap. Development 1 1 Local DW Quality 260 35 Tap Water Testing 238 22 Treatment/BATs (DW) 9 12 Drinking Water Source Protection Ground Water Rule 4 2 Sole Source Aquifer 2 0 Source Water/Wellhead Protect. 42 10 UIC Program 21 3 Out of Purview Household Wells 154 29 Non-Environmental 48 14 Non-EPA Environmental 50 39 Other EPA (Programs) 119 32 TOTALS 2,578 426 -5- ------- SAFE DRINKING WATER HOTLINE MONTHLY REPORT September 2002 Appendix A: Federal Register Summaries NOTICES "Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Tribal Operator Certification Program Information Collection Request" September 17, 2002 (67 FR 58603) EPA announced that it is planning to submit the proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) entitled "Tribal Operator Certification Program," EPA ICR No. 2092.01, to the Office of Management and Budget for review and approval. Comments must be submitted by November 18, 2002. "Office of Environmental Justice Small Grants Program; Application Guidance FY 2003" September 27, 2002 (67 FR 61090) This guidance outlines the purpose, goals, and general procedures for application and award under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 Environmental Justice Small Grants Program. For Fiscal Year 2003, EPA will make available approximately $1,500,000 in grant funds to eligible organizations; $1,000,000 of this amount is available for Superfund projects only. Eligibility for grants for multimedia projects can include activities outlined in a number of environmental statutes including the Safe Drinking Water Act 1442(c)(3)(A). -6- ------- |