EPA Increases Safeguards for Drinking Water

The Environmental Protection Agency set limits Monday for 27 previously unregulated contaminants in drinking water, including several pesticides widely detected in wells nationwide in a recent EPA survey.

Citing updated information on various chemicals and metals, the agency also tightened existing limits for five contaminants and relaxed them for four.

Altogether, the EPA now will enforce limits for 60 drinking water pollutants, including widely used agricultural pesticides, common industrial chemicals and minerals such as nitrate, which comes from natural deposits, sewage and fertilizer.

EPA officials said the new and revised drinking water standards would cost water suppliers an additional $88 million a year.

They estimated 3,300 water systems would have to make major expenditures that could raise water bills for the average household anywhere from $10 to $800 a year, with the biggest increases likely in smaller systems.

In return, the EPA believes the new regulations will reduce health threats to about 3 million Americans exposed to potentially dangerous contaminant levels, which can damage the kidneys, liver, nervous system, heart or reproductive system.

In addition, 13 of the substances covered under the new limits are possible carcinogens.