One drinking water regulation that should be finalized soon is the Third Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule (UCMR3). EPA’s regulatory agenda lists the promulgation target for UCMR3 as March 2012, but that schedule may be slipping slightly since the rule package is still at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. OMB’s 90-day review window ends on March 8, after which EPA must respond to any OMB comments and suggestions, revise the final rule package (including all supporting documents), route the final rule package through EPA review processes and prepare the Federal Register notice for publication. Though it is possible that this could all be done by the end of March, a more typical timeframe for completing all of these items would indicate a delay in final publication of UCMR3 until at least April.
The list of contaminants on the final UCMR3 is expected to largely follow the proposed list, with hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) being the most likely exception. Although Cr-VI was not on the proposed UCMR3 list, in several recent public venues EPA has mentioned that it received significant comment requesting inclusion of Cr-VI. There is also speculation that EPA’s recent revisions to its analytical method for Cr-VI (http://amwa.net/method2187) paves the way for Cr-VI’s addition to the list. The revised method (Method 218.7) updates several requirements from the previous version, which was last revised in 1994. The older version of the method, developed more for analysis of wastewater, has long been critiqued as too conservative (and thus overly burdensome and costly) for regular analysis within typical drinking water matrices. Overly restrictive filtration, temperature and holding time requirements have been relaxed in Method 218.7.
During a February 23 meeting at OMB, AMWA and other associations were given an opportunity to reiterate their positions on UCMR3. AMWA staff reviewed recommendations outlined in the public comments submitted in response to the UCMR3 proposal (seehttp://www.amwa.net/galleries/regcomm/ AMWAfinal_UCMRcomm_2may2011.pdf). OMB staff generally does not comment on rules under its review (and did not during this meeting), but AMWA’s concerns will be fresh in their minds as they enter the final phase of their UCMR3 review.