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Water quality laws govern the protection of water resources for human health and the environment. Water quality laws are legal standards or requirements governing water quality, that is, the concentrations of water pollutants in some regulated volume of water. Such standards are generally expressed as levels of a specific water pollutants ...
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through treatment of the water, can be assessed.
The US EPA is the governmental organization responsible for writing and enforcing environmental regulations passed by Congress. The Clean Water Act was passed in 1972. Section 304(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act is the Water Quality Criteria (WQC) developed for the protection of aquatic life and human health. [4]
The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the US EPA to set standards for drinking water quality in public water systems (entities that provide water for human consumption to at least 25 people for at least 60 days a year). [3] Enforcement of the standards is mostly carried out by state health agencies. [4]
Drinking water quality standards describes the quality parameters set for drinking water. Water may contain many harmful constituents, yet there are no universally recognized and accepted international standards for drinking water. Even where standards do exist, the permitted concentration of individual constituents may vary by as much as ten ...
Maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) are standards that are set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for drinking water quality. [1] [2] An MCL is the legal threshold limit on the amount of a substance that is allowed in public water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
The drinking water standards are organized into six classes of contaminants: Microorganisms, Disinfectants, Disinfection Byproducts, Inorganic Chemicals, Organic Chemicals and Radionuclides. The standards specify either Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) or Treatment Techniques (enforceable procedures). [7]
Water Quality Standards (WQS) are risk-based requirements which set site-specific allowable pollutant levels for individual water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. States set WQS by designating uses for the water body (e.g., recreation, water supply, aquatic life, agriculture) and applying water quality criteria (numeric ...