Expedited Approval of Alternative Test Procedures for the Analysis of Contaminants Under the Safe Drinking Water Act; Analysis and Sampling Procedures

SUMMARY: This action announces the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) approval of alternative testing methods for use in measuring the levels of contaminants in drinking water and determining compliance with national primary drinking water regulations. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authorizes EPA to approve the use of alternative testing methods through publication in the Federal Register . EPA is using this streamlined authority to make 21 additional methods available for analyzing drinking water samples. This expedited approach provides public water systems, laboratories, and primacy agencies with more timely access to new measurement techniques and greater flexibility in the selection of analytical methods, thereby reducing monitoring costs while maintaining public health protection.

DATES: This action is effective June 19, 2014.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800) 426-4791 or Glynda Smith, Technical Support Center, Standards and Risk Management Division, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (MS 140), Environmental Protection Agency, 26 West Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268; telephone number: (513) 569-7652; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

Public water systems are the regulated entities required to measure contaminants in drinking water samples. In addition, EPA Regions as well as States and Tribal governments with authority to administer the regulatory program for public water systems under SDWA may measure contaminants in water samples. When EPA sets a monitoring requirement in its national primary drinking water regulations for a given contaminant, the agency also establishes in the regulations standardized test procedures for analysis of the contaminant. This action makes alternative testing methods available for particular drinking water contaminants beyond the testing methods currently established in the regulations. EPA is providing public water systems required to test water samples with a choice of using either a test procedure already established in the existing regulations or an alternative test procedure that has been approved in this action or in prior expedited approval actions. Categories and entities that may ultimately be affected by this action include: GOES

Category..............Examples of potentially regulated entities..NAICS..*1

State, Local, &...... States, local and Tribal governments that.. 924110

Tribal Governments....analyze water samples on behalf of public

......................water systems required to conduct such

......................analysis; States, local and Tribal

......................governments that themselves operate

......................community and non-transient non-community

......................water systems required to monitor

Industry..............Private operators of community and..........221310

......................non-transient non-community water systems

......................required to monitor

Municipalities........Municipal operators of community and........924110

......................non-transient non-community water systems

......................required to monitor

....*1 North American Industry Classification System.

This table is not exhaustive, but rather provides a guide for readers regarding entities likely to be affected by this action. This table lists the types of entities that EPA is now aware could potentially be affected by this action. Other types of entities not listed in the table could also be impacted. To determine whether your facility is affected by this action, you should carefully examine the applicability language in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 40 CFR 141.2 (definition of public water system). If you have questions regarding the applicability of this action to a particular entity, consult the person listed in the preceding FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

B. How can I get copies of this document and other related information?

Docket. EPA established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2014-0408. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically through www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Water Docket in the EPA Docket Center, (EPA/DC) William Jefferson Clinton West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. Copyrighted materials are available only in hard copy. The EPA DC Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Water Docket is (202) 566-2426.

Abbreviations and Acronyms Used in This Action

APHA: American Public Health Association

ATP: Alternate Test Procedure

CFR: Code of Federal Regulations

DPD: N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine

EPA: United States Environmental Protection Agency

GWR: Ground Water Rule

NAICS: North American Industry Classification System

NEMI: National Environmental Methods Index

PRFC: Planar Reagent-Filled Cuvette(s)

QC: Quality Control

RTCR: Revisions to the Total Coliform Rule

SDWA: The Safe Drinking Water Act

TCR: Total Coliform Rule

VCSB: Voluntary Consensus Standard Bodies

II. Background

A. What is the purpose of this action?

In this action, EPA is approving 21 analytical methods for determining contaminant concentrations in samples collected under SDWA. Regulated parties required to sample and monitor may use either the testing methods already established in existing regulations or the alternative testing methods being approved in this action or in prior expedited approval actions. The new methods are listed along with other methods similarly approved through previous expedited actions in 40 CFR Part 141 Appendix A to Subpart C and on EPA's drinking water methods Web site at http://water.epa.gov/scitech/drinkingwater/labcert/analyticalmethods_expedited.cfm.

B. What is the basis for this action?

When EPA determines that an alternative analytical method is "equally effective" (i.e., as effective as a method that has already been promulgated in the regulations), SDWA allows EPA to approve the use of the alternative method through publication in the Federal Register . (See Section 1401(1) of SDWA.) EPA is using this streamlined approval authority to make 21 additional methods available for determining contaminant concentrations in samples collected under SDWA. EPA has determined that, for each contaminant or group of contaminants listed in Section III, the additional testing methods being approved in this action are as effective as one or more of the testing methods already approved in the regulations for those contaminants. Section 1401(1) of SDWA states that the newly approved methods "shall be treated as an alternative for public water systems to the quality control and testing procedures listed in the regulation." Accordingly, this action makes these additional 21 analytical methods legally available as options for meeting EPA's monitoring requirements.

This action does not add regulatory language, but does, for informational purposes, update an appendix to the regulations at 40 CFR Part 141 that lists all methods approved under Section 1401(1) of SDWA. Accordingly, while this action is not a rule, it is updating CFR text and therefore is being published in the "Final Rules" section of the Federal Register .

III. Summary of Approvals

EPA is approving 21 methods that are equally effective relative to methods previously promulgated in the regulations. By means of this rule, these 21 methods are added to Appendix A to Subpart C of 40 CFR Part 141.

A. Methods Developed by Voluntary Consensus Standard Bodies (VCSB)

1. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (Standard Methods). EPA compared the most recent online versions of 14 Standard Methods to earlier versions of those methods that are currently approved in 40 CFR parts 141 and 143. Changes between the approved version and the most recent version of each method are summarized in Smith and Wendelken (2013a). The revisions primarily involve editorial changes (e.g., corrections of errors, procedural clarifications, and reorganization of text). The updated online versions listed in the following table are the same as the earlier approved versions with respect to the chemistry and microbiology, sample handling protocols, and method performance data. For all of these reasons, EPA has concluded that the updated online versions are equally effective relative to those that are currently approved in the regulations. Therefore, EPA is approving the use of the 14 updated Standard Methods for the contaminants and their respective regulations listed in the following table: GOES

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--

Final rule.

CFR Part: "40 CFR Part 141"

Citation: "79 FR 35081"

Document Number: "EPA-HQ-OW-2014-0408; FRL-9912-52-OW"Federal Register Page Number: "35081"

"Rules and Regulations"