What is a drinking water standard?
. Under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA sets standards for approximately 90 contaminants in drinking water. For each of these contaminants, EPA sets a legal limit, called a maximum contaminant level, or requires a certain treatment. Water suppliers may not provide water that doesn’t meet these standards. Water that meets these standards is safe to drink, although people with severely compromised immune systems and children may have special needs. For a more detailed description, read about how standards are set or about EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.
A. Under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA sets standards for approximately 90 contaminants in drinking water. For each of these contaminants, EPA sets a legal limit, called a maximum contaminant level, or requires a certain treatment. Water that meets these standards is safe to drink, although people with severely compromised immune systems and children may have special needs. For a more detailed description, read about how standards are set or about EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.
A. Under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA sets standards for approximately 90 contaminants in drinking water.For each of these contaminants, EPA sets a legal limit, called a maximum contaminant level, or requires a certain treatment. Water suppliers may not provide water that doesn’t meet these standards.
Drinking water standards are generally set by governmental organizations. The standards limit the allowable concentration of contaminants in water for two reasons: the contaminants have been found in drinking water and are known to cause adverse health effects. Since concentrations of contaminants in drinking water are rarely high enough to cause acute health effects, health officials are more concerned about chronic health effects caused by prolonged exposure to low concentrations of a contaminant, such as cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, nervous disorders, and organ damage.
Drinking water standards are the maximum levels of chemicals allowed in drinking water supplied by public water systems. California law requires DHS to set drinking water standards as close to the corresponding public health goals as is technologically and economically feasible. Feasibility may reflect such things as the ability to detect the contaminant by laboratory analyses or the costs of treatment for contaminant removal. These primary drinking water standards are called maximum contaminant levels (MCLs).
