The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized two related drinking water protection rules on Dec. 15 - one that reduces the risk of disease-causing microorganisms from entering water supplies and the other that requires water systems to limit the amount of potentially harmful disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that end up in drinking water.
Signed as EPA enters the 31st anniversary year for the Safe Drinking Water Act, the rules were proposed in August 2003, and were developed from consensus recommendations from a federal advisory committee comprised of state and local governments, tribes, environmental, public health and water industry groups.