Present Activities and Responsibilities

The agencies cited below are engaged in numerous activities related to drinking water. These activities vary from year to year and may be initiated upon specific outbreaks or disasters. The summaries below describe general categories of activities or major initiatives and are not comprehensive. The purpose of the summaries is to encapsulate the scope and nature of each agency’s efforts.

HHS AGENCIES

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

The ATSDR was created under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to assess possible human health effects associated with EPA-designated hazardous waste sites. As part of the agency’s site evaluation and health assessment activities,  ATSDR regularly addresses issues involving drinking water contamination from hazardous chemicals.  ATSDR’s role under CERCLA is to identify unsafe sources of drinking water and related health effects caused by chemical contamination of drinking water at Superfund sites and to assist EPA and State and local governments in ensuring a safe water supply for the affected population.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The CDC is a public health research and technical support institution. State governments solicit assistance from CDC on virtually all issues involving the public’s health. Many of CDC’s activities related to drinking water arise from instances of disease outbreaks or poisonings for which it may provide epidemiological, communication, and laboratory assistance. CDC also conducts several ongoing services regarding drinking water. For example, CDC tabulates the occurrence and characteristics of waterborne outbreaks in the United States. In cooperation with EPA, CDC publishes a biannual summary that helps to delineate larger issues, such as the emergence of new pathogens, and to identify systematic patterns of infrastructure shortcomings, such as those associated with unchlorinated groundwater systems. The CDC Dental Health Program provides technical support for the promotion of water fluoridation. Laboratories at CDC monitor body burdens of a variety of substances, identify and characterize waterborne pathogens, and develop new techniques for isolating various hazardous agents in water and in humans.

Food and Drug Administration

The FDA is primarily a regulatory agency. Within its mandate fall several aspects of drinking water safety. In particular, water used in food processing, bottled water, and drinking water provided on interstate conveyances are all within FDA’s regulatory authority. The EPA Primary Drinking Water Standards are employed as the minimum criteria for bottled water quality. FDA provides guidance and recommendations regarding retail food service practices and equipment. A more complete listing of FDA’s activities related to water is included as Appendix 3.

Health Resources and Services Administration

The HRSA Bureau of Primary Health Care addresses drinking water-related issues as a consequence of its advocacy activities on the part of disadvantaged subgroups of the population that often lack access to adequate amounts of safe water. The agency’s legislative mandate includes the detection and alleviation of unhealthy conditions associated with water and other environmental factors related to health. At present, the Division of Community and Migrant Health is actively advocating compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act standards on those farms hosting migrant and seasonal farm workers. In addition, with the National Cancer Institute, the agency is conducting a retrospective analysis of cancer occurrences among migrant and seasonal farm workers.

Indian Health Service

The IHS is charged with assisting Indian Nations with the protection and promotion of health among their people. In this regard, identifying water-related deficiencies and designing, constructing, and upgrading water supplies are a significant part of their activities. Technical and educational assistance also is provided to ensure proper operation, maintenance, and monitoring of water systems. As a public health organization, the IHS lends health education and epidemiologic support to Indian populations and responds to public health emergencies. As a multi-Nation entity, the IHS maintains national data on Indian-owned systems and serves as an advocate for the Native American community on legislation that may influence water quality for this population.

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

National Cancer Institute

The NCI is a research institution whose mission is to study the causes of cancer and to determine effective prevention measures and cancer treatment modalities. The research program at NCI is conducted to understand basic relationships between water contaminants and the occurrence of cancer in humans. Current epidemiologic research efforts are focused on several factors that influence drinking water quality, including chemical byproducts of disinfection, nitrate, arsenic, and fluoride. Among the types of cancer under scrutiny are leukemia, lymphoma, and cancers of the stomach, esophagus, brain, bladder, kidney, pancreas, colon, and rectum.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

For both ground and surface water resources, the human health issues of interest to the NIEHS are primarily those involving chronic human exposures to chemicals that result from agricultural and industrial activities and improper waste disposal. The NIEHS grant program includes (1) studies of the effects of chlorinated organics, their pathology, and toxicity in mammalian organ systems; (2) epidemiology of health risk factors related to water resources; and (3) the analysis and development of remediation technologies for groundwater contamination (done under the NIEHS Superfund Research Program). In addition, the NIEHS National Toxicology Program has conducted several studies on compounds (i.e., disinfection byproducts) that result from drinking water disinfection by halogenation. These disinfection byproducts are a series of compounds that result from the chlorination, bromination, and ozonation of drinking water. With concern about the rates of colorectal cancer in the United States, these compounds were approved for nomination to the bioassay program. These results will be used by the EPA Office of Water in its risk assessments.

National Library of Medicine

The NLM Division of Specialized Information Services, Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP), maintains both bibliographic and factual files on chemical and biological contaminants. One important factual file includes information about chemical contaminants found in drinking water supplies. Through an interagency agreement with EPA, Federal and State drinking water guidelines and standards for chemical pollutants are included in this data file. Access to the file, as well as EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System, the Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Files, and other specialized files in areas such as carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, and teratogenesis, is available through NLM’s TOXNET system. TOXNET is a system of networked computers used for database file building, updates, and online searching for most of the databases in the TEHIP.

OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES

Department of Defense

The DOD obtains water for its installations from both municipal water supplies and systems owned and operated by the military. All of these systems adhere to EPA SDWA standards, and water-quality data are supplied to State governments as part of ongoing monitoring activities. The DOD provides guidance for operating and monitoring water systems located on U.S. Military installations, both in the United States and in foreign countries. In addition, the Armed Forces have explicit regulations governing water quality for DOD personnel deployed at sea or in the field, away from municipal water supplies. Water-related disease outbreaks at military installations are addressed by military preventive medicine units and are reported to State authorities where appropriate.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is the primary Federal agency charged with ensuring the safety of the public’s drinking water under the SDWA. The EPA evaluates potential drinking water contaminants and sets both enforceable (primary) drinking water standards, as well as nonenforceable secondary drinking water standards (i.e., for color, taste, and odor). Although States, cities, local governments, and private utilities are responsible for the day-to-day monitoring of water treatment plants, the EPA sets basic monitoring requirements and works with the State programs to ensure compliance with the SDWA. EPA activities and guidance cover virtually all aspects of drinking water safety, from watershed protection programs, to plant operation procedures, to household tap water sampling methods for lead and copper. Educational efforts under EPA’s mandate include developing messages for the public, training utility company and laboratory staff, and developing problem overviews and assessments for Congress. The EPA research program addresses the health effects of drinking water contaminants; exposure, risk assessment, and analytical methods; and technologies for drinking water treatment. Through its own affiliations with institutions, universities, and other organizations, the EPA is responsible for much of the research related to drinking water conducted in the United States. A synopsis of EPA’s Drinking Water Research Program is included as Appendix 4.

Department of Agriculture

The USDA has a wide variety of programs that influence drinking water quality. Through these activities, USDA attempts to reduce initial groundwater and runoff contamination by providing guidelines and education regarding pesticide and fertilizer use, encouraging soil conservation efforts, and conducting community watershed education programs. The National Farmstead Assessment Program helps educate rural residents in water pollution risks and prevention strategies. The USDA works to provide safe water for small communities through the Rural Development Agency. The Water Quality Information Center produces bibliographies of water quality issues.

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior

The USGS has collected information on water quality and quantity across the United States since the early 1900’s. Information on the quantity of water used for a variety of purposes, including drinking, is released at 5-year intervals. The status and trends of quality of both surface and groundwater supplies are measured as part of the USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NWQA) program. Data on geological and geophysical features of land are used to understand better how and why water quality changes over space and time. The EROS Data Center provides satellite imagery of remotely sensed environmental data. Regional patterns of water quality, such as the recent findings on the frequency of atrazine in ground water and streams of the Midwest and the occurrence of pesticides and other organic compounds in public supplies across Washington State, are examples of USGS findings about water used as public or domestic supplies. The USGS Water Quality Laboratory performs analysis under tight quality assurance/quality control for a wide variety of organic and inorganic compounds, providing results at low detection levels that are easily interpretable across political boundaries on the basis of consistent methodologies nationwide.