Advances in Drinking Water Treatment in the United States

The United States drinking water public health protection goal is to provide water that meets all health-based standards to ninety-five percent of the population served by public drinking water supplies by 2005. In 2002, the level of compliance with some eighty-five health-based standards was ninety-four percent. This significant accomplishment has been achieved through strong regulation and technical support to drinking water supply systems. The engineering and risk management research program that supports drinking water regulation has developed the Drinking Water Contaminant Management Framework to organize research related to control of a contaminant or group of contaminants in drinking water. The recent lowering of the arsenic drinking water standard serves as a case study for application of the Framework. Emerging research areas include the use of DNA based analytical techniques to advance our understanding of microbial contaminants in drinking water and water security. Real-time monitoring techniques will require significant advancement before they can be relied upon to insure drinking water protection.