Pursuant to 5
CFR 1320 and the Paperwork Reduction Act, OMB approves this
collection for three years.
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
08/31/2015
36 Months From Approved
01/31/2014
4,211
0
1,694
40,667
0
9,761
13,093,934
0
2,863,520
Section 1445(a)(2) of the 1996
amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires that once
every five years, beginning in 1999, the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issue a new list of no more
than 30 unregulated contaminants to be monitored by public water
systems (PWSs). SDWA requires that EPA vary the frequency and
schedule for monitoring based on the number of persons served, the
source of supply, and the contaminants likely to be found. It
requires that EPA only include a representative sample of systems
serving 10,000 or fewer people. SDWA also requires EPA to enter the
monitoring data into the National Drinking Water Contaminant
Occurrence Database (NCOD). EPA published the first Unregulated
Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR 1) for PWSs in the Federal
Register (FR) on September 17, 1999 (64 FR 50556). In addition,
several supplemental rules established analytical methods, and
provided clarifications and refinements to the initial rule. The
second UCMR (UCMR 2) was published in the Federal Register on
January 4, 2007 and built on the established structure of UCMR 1
while making some changes to the rule design. The third UCMR (UCMR
3) builds on the established structure of UCMR 1 and UCMR 2, and
makes some changes to improve the rule design. EPA revised the
contaminant list, analytical methods and sampling design for UCMR
3. UCMR 3 monitoring will take place from 2013 through 2015. The
applicable three-year period for this particular Information
Collection Request (ICR) is 2012-2014.The Safe Drinking Water Act
(SDWA), as amended in 1996, directs EPA to establish criteria for a
program to monitor not more than 30 unregulated contaminants every
five years. EPA published the first group of contaminants in the
Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (i.e., UCMR 1), which
established a revised approach for UCMR implementation, in the
Federal Register dated September 17, 1999, (64 FR 50556). EPA
published the second group of contaminants in UCMR 2, in the
Federal Register dated January 4, 2007, (72 FR 367). This
regulation met the SDWA requirement by identifying 25 new priority
contaminants to be monitored during the UCMR 2 cycle of 2007-2011.
Under UCMR 2, Assessment Monitoring uses more common analytical
method technologies used by drinking water laboratories. All public
water systems (PWSs) serving more than 10,000 people, and 800
representative PWSs serving fewer than 10,001 people are required
to monitor for the 10 "List 1" contaminants during a 12-month
period between January 2008-December 2010. Screening Survey
monitoring uses more specialized analytical method technologies not
as widely used by drinking water laboratories. All PWSs serving
more than 100,000 people, 320 representative PWSs serving
10,001-100,000 people, and 480 representative PWSs serving fewer
than 10,001 people are required to monitor for the 15 "List 2"
contaminants during a 12-month period between January 2008-December
2010.
This ICR builds upon the ICR
developed for UCMR 2. The reasons that respondents to UCMR 3 will
incur a different burden than those responding to UCMR 2 include:
-UCMR 3 establishes a new list of 29 unregulated contaminants,
including 27 chemicals measured using up to seven analytical
methods and/or four equivalent consensus organization-developed
methods, and two viruses measured using one sample collection and
two detection methods. In addition, EPA is requiring the monitoring
of total chromium under the authority provided in Section 1445
(a)(1)(A) of the SDWA. The cost for sample analysis is different
than for UCMR 2. EPA plans to have laboratories under EPA contract
to conduct sample analysis for the two viruses. -More QA samples
are collected and analyzed under UCMR 3 than were collected for
UCMR 2. Field blanks will be collected for three Assessment
Monitoring (List 1) methods, the one Screening Survey (List 2)
method, and additional QA samples will be collected and analyzed
for Pre-Screen Testing (List 3) viruses and indicator pathogens
(see Exhibit 1 in section 4(b)(i), Part A of the supporting
statement). -UCMR 3 monitoring is based on retail population
served. Thus, as compared to UCMR 1 and 2, systems that purchase
all of their water from monitoring are not excluded. In addition,
some wholesale systems will no longer be subject to monitoring. All
systems serving more than 10,000 retail customers must monitor for
Assessment Monitoring (List 1) contaminants. Because of this
change, EPA estimates a net increase of approximately 800 large and
very large systems to monitor for UCMR 3, compared to those that
monitored for UCMR 2 (see Exhibit 8 in section 6(a)(i), Part A of
the supporting statement). -Samples for the metals and chlorate
(under Assessment Monitoring) will be collected for all systems at
the DSMRT location in addition to the required EPTDS locations (see
explanation in section 4(b)(ii), Part A of the supporting
statement).
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
2192ss05b.docx
Public Water Systems