UL, a water quality and safety company, was awarded a contract from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test samples from small public water systems serving 10,000 people or fewer for contaminants listed in the third cycle of EPA's Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule program.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA identifies a new list of contaminants suspected in public water systems that may warrant regulation every five years. The UCMR program is designed to provide data to the EPA to help determine whether new regulations are needed to protect public health. Since the inception of the UCMR program in 2001, UL has supported the EPA in this effort.
During a 12-month period between January 2013 through December 2015, approximately 800 EPA-selected small public water systems serving 10,000 or fewer people will be required to monitor for 21 contaminants and 480 EPA-selected small systems will be required to monitor for seven additional contaminants.
UL is approved by the EPA to perform all methods required for UCMR 3 List 1 and List 2 contaminants. Over the past 20 years, UL has analyzed more than 2.5 million water samples for thousands of bottlers, public water systems, engineering firms and state and federal agencies, such as the EPA and military. UL is also accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for delivering the widest range of testing and certification services for water product manufacturers.
Source: UL