{"id":857,"date":"2020-07-30T09:21:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T13:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/?p=857"},"modified":"2020-07-30T10:11:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T14:11:29","slug":"how-to-use-epa-method-500-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/how-to-use-epa-method-500-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use EPA Method 500 Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

EPA method 500<\/a> standards were made to identify and quantify organic compound contaminants in public drinking water. The methods consist of standard procedures for the detection of organic contaminants such as pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and synthetic organic compounds. The EPA method 500<\/a> standards are cited in the US Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).<\/p>\n

What is the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)<\/h2>\n

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is a law passed by the US Congress in 1974 to regulate the nation\u2019s drinking water. In 1986 and 1996 the law was amended to require actions to protect public health by taking care of the drinking water supply at its sources such as rivers, lakes, springs, and public ground-water wells. Today, the SDWA regulates the quality of drinking water through drinking water source protection, water treatment, and distribution system integrity. Through the SDWA, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish health-based standards for the quality of drinking water because contaminants in drinking water pose a risk to public health. The US EPA as well as states work together to ensure drinking water standards are met in order to prevent negative health impacts of contaminated water supply.<\/p>\n

What is an EPA Action Level?<\/h2>\n

An EPA action level is a concentration of a contaminant over which certain actions must be taken. These actions can either be investigating the route of contamination, recommending a treatment for the contamination, treating the contamination, checking the water source for contamination, removal\/replacement of water delivery materials, or public education. You can use an EPA method 500<\/a> standard to test for the contaminant levels in your drinking water supply.<\/p>\n

How does the EPA Regulate Water?<\/h2>\n

The SDWA provides a process the EPA must follow to list a compound as a contaminant and then decide whether or not to regulate it. The EPA decides whether it will regulate a compound based on whether it causes adverse health effects, how widespread it is, and how likely contamination is. If, after reviewing data about the health effect of a contaminant, the EPA decides it should be regulated, it sets a maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG). An MCLG is the highest concentration of a contaminant in public drinking water which a negative health impact to people is known to occur. Once an MCLG is established, the maximum contaminant level (MCL) is set by the EPA which is an enforceable standard of the maximum concentration of a contaminant permissible in water delivered to a public water system. To test whether the water meets these standards the EPA has also developed the EPA method 500<\/a> series to ensure contamination testing is done properly.<\/p>\n

What are the Basic Categories of Drinking Water Contaminants Regulated by the EPA?<\/h2>\n

Drinking water contaminants can be microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfectant byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, or radionuclides. The full list of contaminants can be found in the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation table on the EPA website.<\/p>\n

Do EPA Method Standards Apply to Bottled Water?<\/h2>\n

The EPA has no regulatory power over the drinking water that is privately sourced so it cannot set standards for bottled water. However, the US Food and Drug Administration does have regulatory power over drinking water, and the FDA bases their standards off the EPA standards. To adhere to these standards, you may need to test for the contaminants that are listed in the EPA method 500 series. Chem Service supplies quality guaranteed EPA method 500<\/a> standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPA method 500 standards were made to identify and quantify organic compound contaminants in public drinking water. The methods consist of standard procedures for the detection of organic contaminants such as pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and synthetic organic compounds. The EPA method 500 standards are cited in the US Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intranet.chemservice.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}