WORLD : New Drinking Water Standards Set

The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans today to regulate 38 contaminants in drinking water on grounds that they pose a health hazard.

Monitoring to detect pollutant levels in the water system is likely to cost every household nationwide up to an extra $10 a year. The EPA estimated that it will cost 2,500 mostly small public water systems about $360 million to install equipment to lower the amount of pollutants.

The 38 pollutants added to EPA’s list brought to 55 the number of contaminants for which the agency has set standards.

Among those named today were asbestos, barium, styrene, mercury, chromium, selenium, aldicarb, chlordane and PCBs. Michael Cook, director of the EPA Office of Drinking Water, told a press conference that 2 million people will be affected by the new list, largely in the Southeast and upper Midwest and in farming areas where pesticide use is highest.