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is responsible for enforcing regulations on drinking water in the United
States, and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act (most recently amended in
1996) required the EPA to become responsible for determining levels of
contaminants (physical, chemical, biological or radiological) in any drinking
water and enforcing regulations on the maximum levels allowed for each
contaminant. These regulations also require that if there is no feasible way to
measure the maximum concentration of a contaminant, techniques to treat
the contaminant will be used regardless.
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The United States now moni-
tors its water quality based on parameters for microbials, volatile organic
compounds, synthetic organic chemicals and inorganics such as nitrate, lead
and arsenic.
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U.S. tap water is considered to be relatively extremely clean since Con-
gress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, which allowed the EPA to set lim-
its on contaminants in drinking water. However, there are still dangers. In a
2009 report from the EPA, threats to the United States' drinking water are
shown to be increasing, and although 91 contaminants are monitored under
the 1974 Act, there are still a myriad of untested chemicals in existence in
water supplies across the country that could have potential health impacts.
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Water is thoroughly treated in the United States similar to that in the UK
system through a process of coagulation, sedimentation, filtering and disin-
fecting. But this system is not fool proof, and some microbes are still able to
bypass the treatment facilities and remain in the water supply. For example
an outbreak of
Cryptosporidium
in 1993 caused illness in 400,000 people and
killed at least 104.
Canada
: The water supply in Canada is through municipally owned
infrastructure and is subject to finance and quality standards that are set by
the government. Each municipality has its own set of standards that must
come within government guidelines, and each is also responsible for setting
water prices, which means there can be a huge range in cost.
11.2.3. China
China brought into effect new standards for drinking water in July 2012
to update those from the old standards, approved in 1985. The new stan-
dards include increased detection for contaminants and better purifica-
tion methods such as ozonation as well as increasing the number of items
tested from 35 to 106, to bring the country in line with international
standards.
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The safety of the water in actual practice is still questioned.
Despite the fact that the higher standards were actually established back in
2007, it has taken the government over 5 years to actually prepare for their
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