Regulating Water Quality

Regulating Drinking Water Quality examines the issue of safe drinking water from both scientific and public health policy points of view. Twenty-seven chapters provide a forum in which EPA and non-EPA scientists discuss the challenges of implementing the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) amendments. General areas covered include an update on regulating lead in drinking water, radon in drinking water, regulating for microbes and disinfection by-products, exposure assessment and drinking water contamination, risk assessment and drinking water contamination, and consumer protection from drinking water point of use systems. Drinking water professionals, environmental and engineering professionals, regulatory personnel, and legislators should consider this important new book a "must have" acquisition for their libraries. FEATURES:

This volume describes the methods used in the surveillance of drinking water quality in the light of the special problems of small-community supplies, particularly in developing countries, and outlines the strategies necessary to ensure that surveillance is effective.

Environmental problems in coastal ecosystems can sometimes be attributed to excess nutrients flowing from upstream watersheds into estuarine settings. This nutrient over-enrichment can result in toxic algal blooms, shellfish poisoning, coral reef destruction, and other harmful outcomes. All U.S. coasts show signs of nutrient over-enrichment, and scientists predict worsening problems in the years ahead. Clean Coastal Waters explains technical aspects of nutrient over-enrichment and proposes both immediate local action by coastal managers and a longer-term national strategy incorporating policy design, classification of affected sites, law and regulation, coordination, and communication. Highlighting the Gulf of Mexico's "Dead Zone," the Pfiesteria outbreak in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, and other cases, the book explains how nutrients work in the environment, why nitrogen is important, how enrichment turns into over-enrichment, and why some environments are especially susceptible. Economic as well as ecological impacts are examined. In addressing abatement strategies, the committee discusses the importance of monitoring sites, developing useful models of over-enrichment, and setting water quality goals. The book also reviews voluntary programs, mandatory controls, tax incentives, and other policy options for reducing the flow of nutrients from agricultural operations and other sources.

Most studies of law enforcement deal with police work, and many are concerned with underenforcement of selective enforcement as problems. This book shifts the focus to social and economic regulation and the issue of compliance.