Todd Kelleher and Ashley Bird, Division of Drinking and Groundwater, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
Karen Mancl, Professor Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University
Because water testing is expensive, US EPA has put steps in place to minimize sampling requirements based on the number of customers, the water source, and the history of contaminant detection. If no contaminants are detected, monitoring schedules may be safely reduced. Due to the complexity of setting drinking water monitoring schedules for chemical contaminants, the monitoring schedules are prepared for each public water system by Ohio EPA Division of Drinking and Groundwater. Monitoring schedules for lead, copper, and bacteria are issued by the Ohio EPA district office.
Chemical Monitoring for Less Than 10,000 Population
 |
Type of Water System | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Community (where people live) |
Nontransient (where people work) |
Transient (where people visit) |
|
| Nitrate | x | x | x |
| Nitrite | x | x | x |
| Radionuclides | x | |
|
| Asbestos | x | x | |
| Inorganic chemicals | x | x | |
| Volatile organic chemicals | x | x | |
| Soluble organic chemicals | x | x | |
| Disinfection byproducts | x | x | |
New monitoring requirements are being enacted for disinfection byproducts. Surface water sources will be impacted first, followed by groundwater sources.
