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EPA is developing new, rapid methods for monitoring water quality at beaches to determine adequacy of water quality for swimming. The methods being developed rely upon quantitive polymerase chain reaction technology. They will permit real time decisions regarding beach closures...

To assess the consequences of nutrient reduction strategies on water quality under climate change, we investigated the long-term dynamics of dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH in Narragansett Bay (NB), a warming urbanized estuary in Rhode Island, where nitrogen loads have declined due ...

Altered lake hydrology is an emerging, widespread threat as changing climate conditions and increasing human water use place greater pressure on water resources. Dam and land use management can significantly alter lake water-level regimes and flow characteristics, which in turn c...

The Tap Water Analysis Project was a multi-year study that used targeted and non-targeted analysis (NTA) methods to survey chemical contaminants in drinking water from five regions across the state of California. For the NTA portion of the project, activated carbon point-of-use (...

Communities are searching for technologies to remove and destroy toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), especially when these chemicals are in their drinking water. PFAS have been used in applications such as fire-fighting foam, cosmetics, water- and fire-resistan...

Legionella pneumophila (Lp) is an opportunistic pathogen that causes respiratory infections primarily through inhalation of contaminated aerosols. Lp can colonize premise plumbing systems due to favorable growth conditions found within those environments (e.g. lower disinfectant ...

Contamination of surface waters often leads to drinking water contamination, degradation of aquatic biota and their habitat and ultimately the decline of the quality of life for both humans and animals. Pathogen contamination, as determined by bacterial fecal indicators, is the l...

The US EPA uses exposure and toxicity information and risk assessments to protect human health and the environment from known hazards. However, some of the chemicals we are exposed to are unknown, undetected, and unregulated. Discovering the identity of unknown chemicals with mas...

On September 1, 2020, EPA published the final regulation, Use of Lead Free Pipes, Fittings, Fixtures, Solder, and Flux for Drinking Water. EPA made  the conforming changes to existing regulations based on the Reduction  of Lead in Drinking Water Act of 2011 and the Comm...

Lead can enter drinking water when service pipes that contain lead corrode, especially where the water has high acidity or low mineral content that corrodes pipes and fixtures. Homes may also have internal plumbing materials containing lead. To reduce exposure to lead in drinking...

Lead service lines (LSL) represent the greatest source of lead (Pb) in drinking water. Identifying LSLs can be challenging, and recent service line (SL) material surveys in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana found that an average 16% of SLs in these states are unknown and ...

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are oxidatively recalcitrant organic synthetic compounds. PFAS are an exceptional group of chemicals that have significant physical characteristics due to the presence of electronegative fluorine. PFAS persists in the environment, bioacc...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Sandia National Laboratories have developed the Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) to quantify resilience of drinking water distribution systems. WNTR is a Python package designed to simulate disaster scenarios and analyze impact...

Legionella pneumophila (Lp) is an opportunistic pathogen that causes respiratory infections primarily through inhalation of contaminated aerosols. Lp can colonize premise plumbing systems due to favorable growth conditions found within those environments (e.g. lower disinfectant ...

EPA-ORD-CPHEA's Michael Pennino and Jana Compton were invited to present on groundwater nitrate at SSWR’s Quarterly Research Area Coordination Team (RACT) meeting for the Nutrients topic SSWR.4 on June 5,  2024.  This meeting brings together the research coordinat...

Diatoms and soft algae have been collected by state monitoring programs across the United States to assess the biological condition of lotic and lentic water bodies. Some of the state programs have long-term records (i.e., decades) of algal taxonomic data. Over time, changes in l...

EPA is developing a regulation for perchlorate in drinking water. As part the regulatory process EPA must develop a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG). FDA and EPA scientists developed a biologically based dose-response (BBDR) model to assist in deriving the MCLG. This mode...

EPA is developing approaches to inform the derivation of a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) for perchlorate in drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA previously conducted an independent, external, scientific peer review of the draft biologically-based dose-res...

Taxonomic data are the foundation of bioassessment and much basic and applied research. Difficulty in morphological species identification, evolving and varying taxon concepts, and nomenclatural changes can lead to significant inconsistencies in taxonomic datasets across analysts...

During the past century, a vast number of organic chemicals have been manufactured and used in industrial, agricultural, public health, consumer products, and other applications. The widespread use in bulk quantities of halogenated organic chemicals (HOCs; also called as Organoha...

Drinking water nitrate contamination is a significant economic and public health concern in The Great Plains, with few tested best practices for improving source water quality. This project seeks to establish a monitoring framework for quantifying the benefits of soil health prac...

Although the offshore water of Lake Michigan has been below the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) total phosphorus (TP) spring target concentration of 7 µg L−1 for several decades, higher TP concentrations occur in the nearshore, contributing to the res...

A coconut shell based (AC1230CX) and a bituminous coal based (F400) granular activated carbon (GAC) were ground with mortar and pestle (MP), a blender, and a bench-scale ball milling unit (BMU). For particle size reduction, the blender was the most time efficient method. Four siz...

Drinking water utilities are vulnerable to both human-caused and natural disasters that can impact the system infrastructure and the delivery of potable water to consumers. Resilience analysis can help utilities identify high-risk areas in their system and understand how to bette...

Premise Plumbing Modeling - Demonstrating effectiveness of new modeling for premise plumbing systems