Radium Compliance Deadline
Passes;
Violation Notices, Enforcement Next Steps
Agency sending violation notices
to 99 water supplies
In December of 2000, U.S. EPA announced
that after nearly a decade of additional study on health effects of naturally
occurring radium levels in drinking water, it had determined to retain
the existing combined total of 5 picoCuries/liter as the MCL. In July
1991, the U.S. EPA had proposed to raise the MCL to 20 picoCuries, calculated
separately for radium 226 and 228.
Illinois has had more than 200 community
water supplies exceed the 5 picoCurie per liter standard since the standard
was imposed in the 1970s. When the 5 picoCurie
per liter MCL was announced in 2000, Illinois had some supplies with levels exceeding
that, most of them located in a belt that runs generally across the northeastern
part of the state.
Following the December 2000 announcement, most supplies began
working toward
achieving compliance utilizing a variety of approaches - some switched to
other water sources, some opted for treatment, some supplemented radium-prone
deep wells with shallow wells.
With the passage of the Dec. 8, 2003, deadline
for compliance, 99 community water supplies were shown on IEPA records as being
out of compliance, though some are
believed to have come back into compliance but not yet provided paperwork demonstrating
that they have.
Each of the 99 will be sent violation notices, requiring them
to submit to the Agency a report of their current status, their plans
and a specific schedule
for achieving compliance in a timely fashion.
Recognizing the difficulty
for some supplies, particularly smaller utilities, to obtain funding
and install equipment or take other actions to meet the
federal standard, IEPA will work with the supplies to ensure compliance
is achieved.
Community water supplies that fail to submit compliance plans,
or that fail to implement them properly, will be referred to the Office
of the
Attorney
General
for formal enforcement action to generate court-enforceable compliance
plans and schedules, with the possibility of imposition of fines for
the uncorrected
violations.
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