The slow summer vacation season has come and gone, and as we move into fall a number of drinking water-related public education and outreach opportunities are stacking up on EPA’s schedule. EPA’s busy fall agenda kicks off in September with webinars to discuss the Third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR3). These webinars will provide public water systems, state UCMR coordinators, laboratories and other stakeholders a comprehensive overview of the UCMR3 rule and provide opportunity to pose questions to the EPA moderator. Two dates are available to participate in the UCMR3 webinar—Monday, September 10, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (register athttps://www2.gotomeeting .com/register/ 245260362) or Wednesday, September 19, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time (register athttps://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/329503842).
Several meetings are also scheduled over the next two months related to the perchlorate drinking water regulation under development at EPA. On September 20, EPA will hold a public meeting in Washington, D.C. (webcast also available) to “share information with the public related to treatment technologies, analytical methods and other information” associated with the upcoming perchlorate proposal. On September 25, EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) Perchlorate Advisory Panel will hold a public teleconference to discuss its recommendations for setting a maximum contaminant level goal for perchlorate in drinking water. The SAB panel teleconference is a follow-up to the two-day meeting it held in July to discuss the issue (see summary of July meeting in separate item below). Last on the current perchlorate schedule, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) will meet on October 4 and 5 in Chicago, and perchlorate is scheduled to be NDWAC’s major discussion topic. Coming out of this round of meetings, we may have a much better idea of were EPA is heading with its perchlorate proposal due out in February 2013.
Additional information and registration instructions for the September 20 perchlorate meeting are available in the Federal Register notice announcing the meeting athttp://www.gpo.gov/ fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-08-30/pdf/2012-21480.pdf. Additional information on the September 25 SAB conference call is available through the SAB website athttp://amwa.net/SABperc925. Lastly, additional information on the October 4 and 5 NDWAC meeting is available at http://amwa.net/ NDWACmtg1045.
Public meetings to discuss the retrospective reviews of Consumer Confidence Reports and the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule are also in the planning stages for October and November, respectively, though final date and time information for those meetings has yet to be published. Updates on other regulatory issues such as Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, Carcinogenic Volatile Organic Compounds and Regulatory Determinations are overdue for official updates and may also make their way onto the agenda in the near term. AMWA continues to closely monitor all of these processes and will provide additional updates in the Monday Morning Briefing or future Regulatory Reports as soon as the information becomes available.