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The Standard
June 2009 - Page 3

Quality Of Water From Domestic Wells In The United States
2,176 Wells Sampled in 30 Regionally Extensive Aquifers
(Data Source: USGS Circular 1332)

More than 43 million people - about 15 percent of the population of the United States - rely on domestic wells as their source of drinking water (Hutson, et al, 2004). The quality and safety of water from domestic wells (i.e., private wells) are not regulated by the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act or by state laws in most cases. Rather, individual homeowners are responsible for maintaining their domestic well systems and for monitoring water quality. The lack of regular monitoring of domestic wells makes periodic assessments at national, regional, and local scales especially important as sources for providing information about this key source of drinking water. Domestic wells sampled in this study are located in 48 states and within 30 regionally extensive aquifers used for water supply in the United States. The aquifers represented by wells in the study are shown in the figure below.

A recently released study from the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the US Geological Survey (USGS) assesses water-quality conditions for about 2,100 domestic wells across the United States. As many as 219 groundwater quality properties and contaminants, including pH, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, radon, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds, were measured. Fecal indicator bacteria and additional radionuclides were analyzed for a smaller number of wells. The large number of contaminants assessed and the broad geographic coverage of the study provides a foundation for an improved understanding of the quality of water from the major aquifers tapped by domestic supply wells in the United States.

Major study findings included:

More than one in five (23 percent) sampled domestic wells contained one or more contaminants at a concentration greater than a human-health benchmark.
Contaminants most often found at concentrations greater than human-health benchmarks were inorganic chemicals.
Nitrate is the only contaminant derived primarily from man-made sources that was found at concentrations greater than a human-health benchmark in more than 1 percent of wells.
Man-made organic compounds were detected in more than one-half (60 percent) of the sampled wells, but concentrations were seldom greater than human-health benchmarks (less than 1 percent of wells).
Microbial contaminants were detected in as many as one-third of the approximately 400 wells sampled.
About one-half (48 percent) of the sampled wells contained at least one contaminant at a level or concentration outside of the range of values recommended by US EPA for the aesthetic quality of water.
Contaminants usually co-occurred with other contaminants as mixtures.

For a complete copy of the report, go to pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1332/.

Stationary Source Audit Sample Program - A Step Closer To NELAC Institute Approval
On May 15, 2009, The NELAC Institute (TNI) announced that the draft standard for the Stationary Source Audit Sample (SSAS) Program was posted for approval on the TNI website. Stationary source testing is a field of environmental monitoring that measures the emissions of air pollutants from stationary sources, such as factories and power plants. To gauge the accuracy and effectiveness of this testing, the US EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) administers a Stationary Source Audit Program (SSAP) that provides audit samples to state and local agencies without cost.

The US EPA contends that it is inappropriate for the Agency to compete with private entities; as such, the OAR and TNI initiated discussions in late 2007 to establish what role TNI might have in transitioning the SSAP administration to the private sector. In 2008, TNI formed the Stationary Source Audit Sample Expert Committee to develop consensus Working Draft Standards (WDSs) to establish the specifications for a new privatized SSAP.

Three WDSs (one each for providers, provider accreditors, and participants) were presented to the public for comment in January 2009. The committee is reviewing these comments for incorporation in the Voting Draft Standards that will be presented at the TNI Forum in August 2009. The US EPA is expected to discontinue supplying audit samples no later than October 2009; therefore, the committee is working in an expedited mode to provide for the transition to the new SSAP under TNI. The posting of the new standards brings to fruition the efforts of TNI to incorporate the SSAS Program into the TNI standard.

Analytical Laboratory News
Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories, Inc. (ABC Laboratories) of Columbia, Missouri, announced the merger of Morse Laboratories of Sacramento, California, in April 2009. Morse Laboratories, which was established in 1935, will continue to operate under the same name.

US EPA To Accelerate Reassessment Of Dioxin And Dioxin-Like Substances
In May 2009, the US EPA announced its intention to accelerate the completion of an assessment of the health risks posed to the public by dioxins and dioxin-like substances. Dioxins, a class of hundreds of chemicals that are difficult to remove from water and soil, are produced by industries that incinerate waste or manufacture chemicals and pesticides. The dioxin issue has received considerable attention as a result of major dioxin cleanup sites in the United States.

The US EPA presented a plan, inclusive of milestone dates, to address issues that include a comprehensive human health and exposure assessment relative to dioxin (“dioxin reassessment”) and dioxin soil cleanup levels. The Agency anticipates that the final dioxin human health and exposure assessment will be completed by the end of 2010.

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