Science Inventory

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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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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

EPA is peer reviewing the Agency’s report modeling the relationship between lead in drinking water and blood lead levels in children utilizing the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) model. The report being peer reviewed may be used to inform the derivation of a concent...

The Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework has been adopted as means to assemble, organize, and integrate all available biological information to support sound regulatory decision making. Environmental chemicals can interfere with the thyroid system at numerous sites, and these ...

The etiology of bladder cancer among never smokers without occupational or environmental exposure to established urothelial carcinogens remains unclear. Urinary mutagenicity is an integrative measure that reflects recent exposure to genotoxic agents. Here, we investigated its pot...

EPA-ORD-CPHEA's Michael Pennino and Jana Compton were invited to present on groundwater nitrate at the EPA Region 5 State Water Directors Meeting on May 15, 2024.  This meeting brings together EPA Region 5 state clean water and drinking water directors to discuss topics of c...

Background. Seroconversion to a pathogen-specific antibody is a marker of an incident infection with a specific pathogen. While self-reported symptoms can be affected by reporting bias, seroconversion is likely to be free of this bias as it is based on objective measurements of a...

This Subproduct is a slide deck for an invited presentation at the Georgetown University Center for PFAS and Cancer (CPAC) Joint Virtual Symposium.  Slide deck presents the results of our group's PFAS developmental toxicity mixture studies.  This work demonstrates the d...

Kinetic models for the redox chemistry of disinfectant decay and toxic disinfection byproduct formation are essential to ensure water quality and protect public health; however, analytical limits have hindered model development. Proton transfer time of flight mass spectrometry (P...

Distribution system nitrification is an important issue for water utilities that use chloramines as a secondary disinfectant. This presentation reviews the causes of nitrification and how to monitor, prevent, and react to nitrification events. Furthermore, an update on research n...