RCAP's Drop of Knowledge: Article Roundup #5

Drop of Knowledge is a monthly digital article from Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP.) The articles focus on topics like wastewater, drinking water, policy, and infrastructure in rural America. It contains how-to’s, tips, and guidance from more than 300 technical assistance providers (TAPs) across the country. Some featured articles are linked below:

• Pembroke Township Public Water System Training and Assistance for Drinking Water Operators
• Communicating About Lead in Drinking Water
• Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck – GIS Mapping
• Board Relationships: Navigating the Waters of Governance and Operations
• The Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) Helps Island Community Retain Local Water System Ownership
• Big Changes for a Small Water System

Looking for something else? Find more articles and subscribe to A Drop of Knowledge.

Lead and Copper Pipe Replacement

Lead and copper enter drinking water primarily through plumbing materials. Exposure to lead and copper may cause health problems ranging from stomach distress to brain damage. The treatment technique for lead and copper requires systems to monitor drinking water at customer taps. If the action level for lead is exceeded, the system must also inform the public about steps they should take to protect their health and may have to replace lead service lines under their control.

We have 521 resources (and counting) on Lead and Copper in our Documents Database that provide valuable information on this topic. You can search for documents on how to collaborate with organizations to replace lead service lines (LSLs), case studies that analyze LSLs in small community water systems, how to reduce lead in drinking water in schools and childcare facilities, how to address lead in drinking water with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), and many other useful guides that will help you to deliver safe and clean water to utility customers. 

To access the wealth of knowledge on Lead and Copper within our database just select "CATEGORY" in the dropdown then choose "Lead and Copper." Once you make that selection, a second dropdown will appear where you can choose "HOST," “TYPE,” or “STATE” to narrow the search even further. If you have a specific search term in mind, use the “Keyword Filter” search bar on the right side of the screen.

This is part of our A-Z for Operators series.

Drinking Water Standards: Rules, Regulations, Compliance

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards that, when combined with protecting ground water and surface water, are critical to ensuring safe drinking water. U.S. EPA works with its regional offices, states, tribes and its many partners to protect public health through implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act. The standards are the levels of a particular contaminant that are allowed in drinking water and still considered safe.

We have 1482 resources (and counting) on Drinking Water Standards in our Documents Database that provide valuable information on this topic. You can search for resources like an overview of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), information on how U.S. EPA develops risk-based drinking water regulations, a comprehensive list of potential contaminants in water, and many other useful guides that will help you to deliver safe and clean water to utility customers. 

To access the wealth of knowledge on Drinking Water Standards within our database just select "CATEGORY" in the dropdown then choose "Drinking Water Standards." Once you make that selection, a second dropdown will appear where you can choose "HOST," “TYPE,” or “STATE” to narrow the search even further. If you have a specific search term in mind, use the “Keyword Filter” search bar on the right side of the screen.

This is part of our A-Z for Operators series.

Learning Lessons from Supply Chain Disruption

One of the most prominent economic impacts to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic was the breakdown of supply chains for many consumer, medical, and industrial products. Though the shortages of goods such as toilet paper, semiconductor chips, personal protective equipment and more made widespread headlines, the range of items affected spread much wider — including to the supply of critical water treatment chemicals. The American Water Works Association found in November 2021 that 45% of surveyed water utilities were experiencing shortages of water treatment chemicals, among other staffing and supply issues. 

Shortages of chlorine did make news in the summers of 2021 and 2022 due to the difficulty pool-owners had obtaining it to clean their pool water, but the threat it posed to water utilities — where chlorine is a critical component of the treatment and disinfection process — was much less widely known. In 2021, the pandemic spurred the shortage by causing a decrease in production capacity, an increase in demand (largely from a boom of newly-installed pools), and other logistical failures. However, non-COVID factors also played a role in the shortages.

Hurricane Laura, which struck Louisiana in August 2020, severely damaged the BioLab Inc. chemical plant, a major US producer of chlorine. In 2022, the labor dispute between rail workers and rail companies briefly led to an embargo on the rail transport of hazardous materials including chlorine and other water treatment chemicals. While further major disruptions did not occur in 2023, the EPA considers the chlorine supply chain to be “vulnerable to periods of reduced product allocation and/or price increases” and maintains a page tracking the status of chlorine availability and pricing. 

The most severe supply chain disruption in 2023 for water treatment chemicals came right at the start of the year — when a four-alarm fire devastated the Carus Chemical factory in LaSalle, Illinois, on January 11. Carus is the only producer of potassium permanganate in North America, which is used to oxidize contaminants in drinking water. While the company initially warned of  a 3-month outage in its production capacity, potassium permanganate production did not resume at Carus until August. Luckily, overseas imports were able to fill demand after some initial shortages, and the EPA found that supply had stabilized by May.

Other water treatment chemical supply chains that the EPA considered to be disrupted since 2020 include carbon dioxide, sodium hydroxide and hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid, ferric and ferrous chloride, oxygen, and fluorosilicic acid. However, none of these disruptions are considered to be ongoing.

While supply chains of water treatment chemicals have always been susceptible to periods of economic strain, such as the Great Recession of 2007-09, COVID-19 revealed many more risks in the system. According to the EPA’s “Understanding Water Treatment Chemical Supply Chains” report:  

“The supply disruptions that have occurred during the pandemic era revealed a range and intensity of supply chains stressors that had not previously been observed in such a short timeframe. While high-impact events such as a pandemic or repeated extreme weather events concentrated on industrial hubs may have been considered low-probability in previous assessments, supply chain risk planning may have to consider greater frequency and co-occurrence of such high-impact events.”

The most prevalent long-standing threats to the stability of supply chains include natural disasters, equipment failures, logistical problems such as transportation delays, and malicious acts like cyberattacks and sabotage — none of which will stop being a concern even as the pandemic is increasingly behind us. International markets can also be severely affected by trade barriers, armed conflicts, and natural disasters. 

Perhaps the most prominent chemical shortage preceding 2020 was a national shortage of chlorine in 1974. While a single cause of the shortage could not be identified, New York Times reporting at the time cited the new requirement to chlorinate wastewater, the closure of production facilities, and the energy crisis of the 1970s (which was peaking with the 1973-74 oil shock) as likely factors.

For more information on the supply chain history of various water treatment chemicals, the EPA’s supply chain profiles of 46 commonly used chemicals contains shortage histories for 2000-2022, as well as risk profiles for shortages of each chemical. Risk ratings for these chemicals can also be found in the “Understanding Water Treatment Chemical Supply Chains” report.

As for future concerns, chlorine availability could continue to be made vulnerable by natural disasters in the Gulf Coast region. 33% of American chlor-alkali facilities, in which most chlorine is produced, are located along the Gulf Coast, which is both historically prone to hurricanes and under greater threat as climate change intensifies storms. Disruptions in chlorine supply also lead to disruptions in ferric chloride supply, which requires hydrochloric acid. 

The EPA has many resources to assist in preparing for and responding to supply chain challenges. The critical steps to prepare are:

1. Using federal and state support programs for operational efficiency and cost reduction
2. Management of supplier relationships
3. Coordinating with other utilities, state and local agencies, and water sector associations
4. Instituting operational flexibilities 

To respond to disruptions, the EPA recommends:

1. Seeking federal support
2. Communicating with suppliers
3. Coordinating with partners

Follow the Supply Chain Resilience Guide for more information, instructions, and tips to prepare and respond.  

More information, tools, and links from the EPA: 

• Current Supply Chain Disruptions
• Platform for Coordinating Supply Chain Efforts
• Chemical Suppliers and Manufacturers Locator Tool
• Supply Chain Case Studies
• Water Treatment Chemical Supply Chain Profiles
• Understanding Water Treatment Chemical Supply Chains and the Risk of Disruptions
• Supply Chain Resilience Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities
   

Small Drinking Water Webinar Series Recap

EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of Water (OW), in collaboration with the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), host this free webinar series to communicate the latest information on solutions for challenges facing small drinking water systems. The series topics vary each month and are primarily designed for state, territory, and tribal staff responsible for drinking water regulations compliance and treatment technologies permitting. We have compiled the webinar recordings that were released in 2023 as part of this series below:

Pathogens | February 2023

Presentation 1: Microbial and Disinfection Byproducts (MDBP) Rules Revision Update
Presentation 2: Challenges and Perspectives of Studying Water Storage Tank Ecosystems in Distribution Systems

Lead and Copper | March 2023

Presentation 1: EPA's Lead Service Line Inventory Guidance
Presentation 2: Corrosion Test Methods

Manganese | April 2023

Presentation 1: Manganese Interference with Disinfectant Residual Methods
Presentation 2: Management of Manganese and Small System Considerations

Harmful Algal Blooms and Algal Toxins | May 2023

Presentation 1: HAB Technical Assistance in El Salvador
Presentation 2: Cyanobacterial Blooms Dynamics as Determined by Nucleic Acid Based Techniques

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law | June 2023

Presentation 1: EPA Water Technical Assistance Opportunities
Presentation 2: Supporting the Selection and Implementation of Technologies to Remove PFAS from Drinking Water and from Treatment Residuals
Presentation 3: Applied Research and Technical Assistance Project on Lead Service Line Identification Technologies

Wildfire Impacts on Drinking Water | July 2023

Presentation 1: Wildfire Implications for Drinking Water Systems
Presentation 2: Wildfires Can Increase Drinking Water Contamination: Nitrate, Arsenic, and Disinfection Byproducts

Cybersecurity | August 2023

Presentation 1: Tools and Resources to Help Your Small Systems Build Cyber Resilience
Presentation 2: Water Distribution System Operational Technology Cybersecurity Research at the Water Security Test Bed

Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) and a Spotlight Presentation on EPA's Fraud Awareness | October 2023

Presentation 1: Update on the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5)
Presentation 2: EPA Fraud Awareness
Presentation 3: PFAS Drinking Water Methods: Past, Present, and Future

Risk, Crisis, and General Communication | November 2023

Presentation 1: Conversations With Customers: What We’ve Learned from Talking with Them
Presentation 2: Drinking Water Risk Communication Toolkit
Presentation 3: EPA Flint Water Response: Risk Communication Case Study

The Small Drinking Water Systems Webinar Series is scheduled to continue in 2024. Some of the subjects that are likely to be featured this year include Lead Service Line Inventory Guidance, PFAS Treatment, Disinfection Byproducts, and many other topics.

Arsenic in Drinking Water

Arsenic is a heavy metal and a regulated contaminant in drinking water and wastewater effluent. In 2001, under the Arsenic Rule, EPA adopted a lower standard for arsenic in drinking water of 10 parts per billion (ppb) which replaced the previous maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 50 ppb. Arsenic is a semi-metal element in the periodic table. It is odorless and tasteless. It can enter drinking water supplies from natural deposits in the earth or from agricultural and industrial practices. 

We have 180 resources (and counting) on Arsenic in our Documents Database that provide valuable information on this topic. You can search for documents about the arsenic rule, complying with the arsenic maximum contaminant level, the reporting requirements for the annual Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR), and many other useful guides that will help you to deliver safe and clean water to utility customers. 

To access the wealth of Arsenic related knowledge within our database just select "CATEGORY" in the dropdown then choose "Arsenic." Once you make that selection, a second dropdown will appear where you can choose "HOST," “TYPE,” or “STATE” to narrow the search even further. If you have a specific search term in mind, use the “Keyword Filter” search bar on the right side of the screen.

This is part of our A-Z for Operators series.

Consumer Confidence Report Rule Revision Updates

Everyone has a right to know what is in their drinking water and where it comes from. That is why the original consumer confidence reports (CCR) rule was established in 1998 after amendments were made to the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996. The goal of the reports is to provide community members with updated information about the state of their drinking water that is both accurate and accessible. These reports are also known as annual water quality reports and every community water supplier needs to submit one by July 1st each year. 

America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 later called for an amendment to the rule that would require the U.S. EPA to revise CCR regulations, allow electronic delivery of CCRs, and require large systems to deliver CCRs twice a year. The U.S. EPA is currently in the process of revising the Consumer Confidence Report Rule. After meeting with various stakeholders about improving the effectiveness of communicating drinking water information, they identified five areas that could use improvement: 

1. CCR understandability,
2. Reporting MCLs in numbers greater than or equal to 1.0,
3. Reporting period for including a Tier 3 Public Notice (PN) in the CCR,
4. Certification of CCR delivery and content by the CWS to the primacy agency, and
5. Electronic delivery of the CCR.

The U.S. EPA is anticipating that the final rule should be released by March 2024. Many resources and documents are available on the U.S. EPA website about how to comply with CCR requirements.