PUBLICATIONS--Reference to water-quality regulations and criteria April 7, 1978 QUALITY OF WATER BRANCH TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM NO. 78.05 Subject: PUBLICATIONS--Reference to water-quality regulations and criteria Keeping in proper perspective the many federal regulations pertaining to water quality that have been promulgated as a means of implementing recent environmental protection laws presents a continuing challenge to the hydrologist. At the same time, these regulations must be distinguished from compilations of water- quality criteria, which have no force in law, but which can be used as a basis for evaluating measured water-quality characteristics in much the same way that some of the regulations can be used. This memorandum is intended to put at least some of these regulations and criteria in proper perspective, to indicate which have been superseded, and to advise WRD personnel on the correct way to reference those that are most applicable at the present time. Water Quality Regulations In 1962 the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare published the Public Health Service Drinking Water Standards, which set forth standards for the quality of drinking water used by common carriers engaged in interstate commerce. It was recommended by the Public Health Service that the Standards be used also as criteria for evaluating the quality and safety of potable water supplies generally, and this was endorsed by the American Water Works Association. The Standards included two types of limits on physical and chemical characteristics of the delivered water--mandatory limits that pertained to human health and recommended limits that pertained to the esthetic characteristics of the water. The 1962 drinking water regulations have since been superseded by a series of new regulations published by the Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Safe Drinking Water Act (Public Law 93-523), which amended the Public Health Service Act. Authors of water-quality reports and reports specialists should be familiar with the various aspects of these regulations, which also establish both mandatory and recommended limits on the quality of delivered water, but which apply to virtually all public-water systems, not just those involved in interstate commerce. The mandatory limits are referred to as primary drinking water regulations, and the recommended limits are referred to as secondary drinking water regulations. The following four Federal Register references should be used in all reports and correspondence pertaining to current drinking water regulations unless a historical perspective is being developed. Copies of references A, B, and C have been sent to you under WRD Memos 76.124, 76.174-T, and 77.111; reference D has not yet been transmitted to field offices. (A) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1975, National interim primary drinking water regulations: Federal Register, v. 40, no. 248, Wednesday, December 24, 1975, Part IV, p. 59566-59587 . These regulations apply to the physical and chemical characteristics of water that affect the health of consumers. They are applicable to virtually all public water systems and are enforceable by EPA or the States. Mandatory limits are given for microbiological, physical, and selected inorganic and organic chemical characteristics of waters. These regulations became effective on June 24, 1977, 18 months after the date of promulgation. (B) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1976, Interim primary drinking water regulations - promulgation of regulations on radionuclides: Federal Register, v. 41, no. 133, Friday, July 9, 1976, Part II, p. 28402-29409. These regulations add limits for natural and manmade radioactivity to the list of water-quality characteristics that are regulated by the interim primary drinking water regulations. The effective date of these regulations was set at June 24, 1977, to coincide with that for reference A, above. (C) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1977, National secondary drinking water regulations: Federal Register, v. 42, no. 62, Thursday, March 31, 1977, Part I, p. 17143-17147. These regulations complement the primary regulations, and deal with the esthetic qualities of drinking water. They are not Federally enforceable and are intended as guidelines for regulation by the States. The recommended limits presumably became effective on publication, but the regulations were described as proposed, and comments were to be accepted until June 1, 1977, with the apparent intention of making the regulations final at the same time the interim primary drinking water regulations were to become effective. (D) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1978, Interim primary drinking water regulations-control of organic chemical contaminants in drinking water: Federal Register, v. 43, no. 28, Thursday, February 9, 1978, Part II, p. 5756-5780. This proposed amendment to the National Interim Primary Drinking Water Regulations is intended to protect the public health from organic chemical contaminants in delivered drinking water. Contaminants covered under this regulation are the trihalomethanes, a group of organic compounds that include chloroform and which can be produced from certain organic compounds in raw water by the chlorination process. The mandatory limit (maximum contaminant level) for this group of compounds only applies to community water systems serving more than 75,000 persons. It would become effective 18 months after the date of promulgation of the amendment. Other regulations include state water-quality standards that have been promulgated by the states under the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (PL 92-500) using guidelines developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These standards vary from state to state, and the proper form of reference should be determined through the appropriate state agency. Water Quality Criteria It is important to distinguish water-quality regulations or standards from water-quality criteria. Water-quality criteria can be established to provide a basis for evaluating the water source with respect to a specific water use---for example, public water supply, irrigation of crops, water contact recreation, stock watering, etc., or for a combination of uses. Criteria are usually stated in terms of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of the water. Development of criteria is sometimes carried one step further, in which the criteria are used in a mathematical expression, with or without weighting factors, to form a water-quality index. The development and use of water quality indexes will not be discussed in this memorandum. The best current references to water-quality criteria are: (E) National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, 1972 [1974~, Water Quality Criteria 1972: U.S. Government Printing Office, 594 p. (Note: This reference is identified incorrectly as an EPA report on page 126 of Suggestions to Authors, Sixth Edition.) This book is the successor to the publication Water Quality Criteria, which was issued in 1968 as the report of the National Technical Advisory Committee to the Secretary of the Interior. The 1972 publication was prepared by the National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering at the request and with the support of EPA. The 1968 report was prepared for the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, a precursor of EPA. The book is organized on the basis of water use. The six categories of water use that are covered are (l) recreation and esthetics, (2) public water supplies, (3) freshwater aquatic life and wildlife, (4) marine aquatic life and wildlife, (5) agricultural uses of water, and (6) industrial water supplies. For each basic water-quality characteristic that is listed under a particular water use there is a recommended criterion, an intro- duction, a rationale supporting the recommendation, and a list of the references cited in the development of the recommendations. (F) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1976 [1977]; Quality Criteria for Water: U.S. Government Printing Office, 256 p. This book is similar to reference E to the extent that the water quality criteria listed are described in terms of water use. However, the format and therefore the emphasis of the book are considerably different. The thrust of Quality Criteria for water is to recommend criteria for a water quality that will provide for the protection and propagation of fish and other aquatic life and for recreation in and on the water, in accord with the 1983 goals of Public Law 92-500. Therefore, for the most part only one set of criteria is given, one which will provide for the combination of uses emphasized by the law. Criteria are presented for other water uses only where they are more stringent than those required to satisfy the law. All criteria for a particular water-quality characteristic are listed together. The reference given above should be used in preference to the earlier pre-publication (larger 8 x 10 1/2", red-covered) version of the book. Further inquiries about these references should be directed to the Quality of Water Branch, MS 412, Reston, VA. R. J. Pickering Chief, Quality of Water Branch WRD Distribution: A,,B,S,FO,PO