Meetings: Drinking water issues Microbial pathogens and disinfection byproducts control,
[Federal Register: February 6, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 25)]
[Notices]
[Page 6180-6181]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06fe98-74]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-5963-5]
Notice of Public Meetings on Drinking Water Issues
Notice is hereby given that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding three series of public meetings for purposes of information exchange and technical discussion on issues related to the development of regulations to control microbial pathogens and disinfection byproducts in drinking water.
The first series of meetings includes issues related to the development of the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR) and the Stage 2 Disinfectants/Disinfection Byproducts Rule (Stage 2 DBP). The Agency is developing this set of rules to take into account risk trade-offs between microbial contaminants and chemical byproducts of disinfection processes, as well as to consider the need for improved control in each of these areas. Information exchange and technical discussions in these meetings will address analysis of source water occurrence data and drinking water treatment plant and distribution system data collected under EPA's Information Collection Rule (ICR). Topics such as microbial and disinfection byproduct research, methods development, supplemental survey data or other related issues may also be discussed under this series of meetings. As part of this series, a public meeting is scheduled for February 18, and 19 at the office of RESOLVE, 1255 23rd Street, NW, Suite 275, Washington, DC, that will include technical discussion on defining analyses of the ICR and plans to extract data from the ICR Federal Database to support those analyses. Discussions regarding data extraction planning will continue on February 20 at the EPA Systems Development Center, 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia.
The second series of meetings includes issues related to the development of the Ground Water Disinfection Rule (GWDR). The Safe Drinking Water Act as amended in 1996 directs EPA to promulgate regulations requiring disinfection ``as necessary'' for ground water systems. The intention of the GWDR is to reduce microbial contamination risk from public water sources relying on ground water. The rule will establish a framework to identify public water supplies vulnerable to microbial contamination and to develop and implement risk control strategies including but not limited to disinfection. This rulemaking will apply to all public water systems that use ground water, which includes noncommunity systems.
The third series includes issues related to the development of the Long Term 1 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT1ESWTR). Information exchange and technical discussions under this series of meetings will focus largely on microbial treatment improvements and controlling disinfection byproduct risk trade-offs for small systems (those serving fewer than 10,000 people), but may also address treatment for larger systems (e.g., issues related to Cryptosporidium inactivation). Other discussion topics
[[Page 6181]]
will also include issues related to the recycling of filter backwash with respect to all public water system sizes.
Each of these series of meetings is anticipated to begin in and continue through this calendar year, and may run concurrently. EPA is hereby providing notice of and inviting interested members of the public to participate in the meetings. As with all previous meetings in this series, EPA is instituting an open door policy to allow members of the public to attend these meetings. To assist EPA in managing limitations on conference room seating, members of the public who are interested in attending meetings are requested to contact the following individuals:
Rule
Contact
Phone ‹SUP›#/E-mail
LT2ESWTR/Stage 2 DBP.................... Jini Mohanty............... (202) 260-6415 mohanty.jini@epa-
mail.epa.gov.
GWDR.................................... Tracy Bone................. (202) 260-2954 bone.tracy@epa-
mail.epa.gov.
LT1ESWTR................................ Valerie Blank.............. (202) 260-8376 blank.valerie-
Members of the public are requested to contact the people listed above also for further information about these or other meetings in these series or to be included on the mailing list to receive notice of further meetings in these series.
Dated: February 3, 1998. William R. Diamond, Acting Director, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.
[FR Doc. 98-3040Filed2-5-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
