The National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) convened in Washington, D.C. December 6-7 to discuss numerous drinking water issues and advise EPA on upcoming priorities and decisions. NDWAC is a federal advisory committee that provides EPA with recommendations related to the national drinking water program and is currently being chaired by AMWA member Carrie Lewis, the general manager of the Portland Water District (Maine).
Health advisories (HAs) were a major topic of discussion throughout the meeting. HAs are developed by EPA to provide information and guidance on contaminants that may occur in drinking water and can affect human health, but are not currently regulated by the agency. NDWAC members, particularly those representing drinking water utilities, gave suggestions on how to improve the process for developing HAs.
Multiple members voiced concern over the public’s perception of HAs and how this perception can impact the public’s trust in their local utility. Members noted that the difference between a HA and a drinking water regulation is often unclear to the public and as a result, can cause confusion and mistrust. Suggestions included clarifying the process for developing HAs, providing a public comment period before introduction and helping communicate the risk of the contaminant to the public. In particular, utility members asked EPA to consider engaging stakeholders in the development of HAs, creating a game plan for how the HA will be put into practice and giving utilities advance notice for when HAs will be released, so utilities can better plan for implementing HAs.
Among other topics discussed at the meeting were integrated water management, direct potable reuse and using water system partnerships to improve the capacity of drinking water utilities. Regarding the latter topic, council members informed EPA on the benefits and barriers to these partnerships and how these barriers might be overcome.
Also on the agenda were updates from the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) Standards and Risk Management Program, as well as its Drinking Water Protection Program. OGWDW Director Peter Grevatt gave a regulatory update and informed the council that revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) and a regulatory standard for perchlorate are the office’s top priorities going into 2018. EPA will hold a meeting on perchlorate at the end of January 2018 and expects a second stakeholder consultation on the revised LCR shortly thereafter. Grevatt did not provide a date on when EPA expected to propose the revised LCR, however a recent update to the rule on the Office of Management and Budget’s webpage gives a tentative proposal date of August 2018.