EPA issues tougher water standards

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The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening drinking water standards to impose stricter limits on four contaminants that can cause cancer.

In a speech Monday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency is developing stricter regulations for four chemical compounds, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, acrylamide and epichlorohydrin. Two of the compounds (tetrachloroethyleneylene and trichloroethylene) are used in industrial and textile processing and can seep into drinking water from contaminated groundwater or surface water. The two others (acrylamide and epichlorohydrin) are impurities that can be introduced into drinking water during the water treatment process.

Jackson said the EPA will issue new rules on the four compounds within the next year.

-- Associated Press