The collection is pre-approved, contingent upon no substantive changes being made to this collection after adoption of the final rule. Otherwise this collection should be re-submitted to OMB for review.
table that charts list comparision
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
12/31/2019
36 Months From Approved
03/31/2019
2,020
0
2,154
77,018
0
17,902
19,163,554
0
6,546,967
Section 1445(a)(2) of 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).
Information collected under the program supports the Agency decision making regarding whether or not to regulate particular contaminants in drinking water. SDWA requires that EPA vary the frequency and schedule for the monitoring program based on the number of persons served, the source of supply, and the contaminants likely to be found. EPA is required by SDWA to only include a representative sample of PWSs 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 Rule (UCMR 1) for PWSs in the Federal Register (FR) on September 17, 1999 (64 FR 50556). The second UCMR (UCMR 2) published in the FR on January 4, 2007 (72 FR 367), and the third UCMR (UCMR 3), published in the FR on May 2, 2012 (77 FR 26071), built on the established structure of the previous UCMRs, while making some changes to the rule design. EPA revised the contaminant list, analytical methods, cost assumptions and sampling design for the specific contaminants in UCMR 4.
The five-year UCMR 4 period spans 2017-2021. UCMR 4 monitoring begins in 2018 and continues through 2020. The applicable three-year period for this particular Information Collection Request (ICR) is 2017-2019. The applicable ICR period overlaps with the first three years of the five-year UCMR 4 period. Most of the burden is incurred in the second, third and fourth year (i.e. monitoring and sample analysis) of the UCMR 4 monitoring period. The first year (the planning year) involves a lesser burden, and the final fifth year involves the least burden since the program is concluding. The UCMR 4 ICR renewal period (2020-2022) will overlap with the last two years of the five-year UCMR 4 period, and therefore will have substantially lower figures.
This ICR builds upon the ICR developed for UCMR 3, entitled: Information Collection Request for UCMR 3, ICR Number 2192.05, OMB Control No. 2040-0270. After the UCMR 1 program was established in 1999, subsequent UCMR cost and burden estimates were incorporated into the larger Chemical/Radionuclides ICR. However, the UCMR 2 and UCMR 3 ICRs were developed and tracked separately from the Chemical/Radionuclides ICR, because the Chemical/Radionuclides ICR was a ârenewalâ ICR, whereas the UCMR program is, per SDWA, a program that must change every five years. Like the UCMR 2 and UCMR 3 ICRs, this action and subsequent ICRs will be developed and tracked separately. The reasons that respondents to this ICR incur a different burden than those responding to the previous UCMR ICRs include:
⢠UCMR 4 includes only one monitoring component; Assessment Monitoring.
⢠UCMR 4 includes a new list of 30 contaminants. Because the laboratory methods are different, the cost of laboratory analysis differs for UCMR 4.
o Under UCMR 4, approximately 5,100 PWSs will monitor for 20 chemicals using up to seven methods with an estimated total unit cost of $1,446 per sample; and approximately 3,500 SW and GWUDI PWSs will monitor for 10 cyanotoxins using up to three methods with an estimated total unit cost of $1,050 per sample. These SW and GWUDI PWSs will monitor eight times instead of the traditional four times.
o Under UCMR 3, approximately 5,000 PWSs monitored for 21 chemicals using six methods with an estimated total unit cost of $1,085; approximately 1,200 PWSs monitored for seven chemicals using one method with an estimated unit cost of $418; and 800 PWSs monitored for two viruses and indicator organisms, using three methods with an estimated total unit cost of $1,880.
⢠EPA will not collect duplicate Quality Assurance (QA) field samples for the small PWSs.
⢠EPA updated wage rates, and re-examined labor burden estimates for states, EPA, and PWS activities.
⢠PWSs will collect samples from EPTDS, distribution locations, and source water (TOC and bromide) locations. Because not all of these samples will be collected at the same time, and at the same locations, EPA estimated more time for sample collection activities than in previous UCMRs.
In addition, some of the costs presented in this final ICR have changed compared to the proposed UCMR because:
⢠EPA removed the requirement for source water cyanotoxin analysis using ELISA.
⢠HAAs sampling is now limited to only those PWSs that are subject to the requirements of the D/DBPRs.
⢠EPA updated wage rates to 2015/2016 dollars.
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.
Public Water Systems