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EVALUATION OF A PROTOCOL FOR DRINKING WATER TREATMENT DATA REQUIRED BY THE FOOD QUALITY PROTECTION ACT
Citation:
Miltner*, R J., Abel, J. Hetrick, AND T. Nguyen. EVALUATION OF A PROTOCOL FOR DRINKING WATER TREATMENT DATA REQUIRED BY THE FOOD QUALITY PROTECTION ACT. Presented at WSWRD Peer Review, Cincinnati, OH, September 27 - 29, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Under the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), the USEPA Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) considers drinking water as a route for pesticide exposure in its human health risk assessments, and may require data on the fate of a pesticide in drinking water be supplied to OPP by the pesticide's manufacturer. OPP's drinking water exposure assessments under the FQPA do not affect the process of setting maximum contaminant levels under the Safe Drinking Water Act, but may affect OPP's decision to register or reregister a pesticide for use, or its decision on how the pesticide may be used. OPP requested that the USEPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) develop and evaluate a protocol for use by the various pesticide manufacturers. The protocol addresses several important considerations, including: the use of lab, surface and ground waters, acceptance criteria for the field waters, studies at the bench scale, studies with treatment processes common to the water industry, quantitation of both the pesticide and any transformation formation products resulting from water treatment, quality control, reporting to OPP, and record keeping and documentation by manufacturers. ORD's evaluation was based on acetochlor, molinate and terbufos. Results to date include: the instability of terbufos, good control provided by adsorption, no control provided by coagulation, and variable control provided by chlorination and softening.