Identifying Meaningful Opportunities for Drinking Water Health Risk Reduction in the United States [Project #4310]

The 1996 Amendments of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires that new drinking water regulations exhibit sufficient meaningful risk reduction. As called for in the SDWA Section 1412(b)(1)(A) General Authority, “...in the sole judgment of the Administrator, regulation of such contaminant presents a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems.” To date, more than 90 individual contaminants have been regulated under the SDWA, and this regulatory approach has served drinking water consumers by protecting them from contaminants that can threaten water systems and pose risks to human health. With improvements in analytical techniques, the list of contaminants detected in water has grown significantly. With this new information comes increased concern regarding the health impact of these contaminants, and how the nation should focus its resources to best serve the interests of public health. This project strives to provide a comparative health impact assessment tool for evaluating the relative health impact of contaminants in drinking water.