Jackson announced EPAâs plans to âconfront emerging health threats, strained budgets and increased needs â todayâs and tomorrowâs drinking water challenges â we must use the law more effectively and promote new technologies.â
âThat means fostering innovation that can increase cost-effective protection. It means finding win-win-win solutions for our health our environment and our economy. And it means broad collaboration. To make our drinking water systems work harder, we have to work smarter,â said Jackson.
The changes to the drinking water strategy consist of four different areas: address contaminants as a group rather than just one at a time, development of new drinking water technologies, use of law to help protect drinking water and partner with states to collaborate more complete data for monitoring purposes.
Addressing the contaminants in a group will be more cost-effective as well as a more speedy process. Over the next few months the EPA will be holding public meetings and workshops to seek advice and feedback. The agency will also consult the Science Advisory Boardâs Drinking Water Committee and the National Drinking Water Advisory Council.