With an increasing population, use of new and diverse chemicals that can enter the water supply, and emergence of new microbial pathogens, the U.S. federal government is faced with a regulatory dilemma: Where should it focus its attention and limited resources to ensure safe drinking water supplies for the future?


Identifying Future Drinking Water Contaminants is based on a 1998 workshop on emerging drinking water contaminants. It includes a dozen papers that were presented on new and emerging microbiological and chemical drinking water contaminants, associated analytical and water treatment methods for their detection and removal, and existing and proposed environmental databases to assist in their proactive identification and regulation.


The papers are preceded by a conceptual approach and related recommendations to EPA for the periodic creation of future Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate Lists (CCLs—produced every five years—include currently unregulated chemical and microbiological substances that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems and that may pose health risks).

Table of Contents


Front Matter
Committee Report: A Conceptual Approach for the Development of Future Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate Lists
1 Historical Overview of Drinking Water Contaminants and Public Water Utilities
2 Emerging Drinking Water Contaminants: Overview and Role of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program
3 CDC Perspective on Emerging Chemical Contaminants in Drinking Water
4 Past and Future Strategies for Sorting and Ranking Chemicals: Applications to the 1998 Drinking Water COntaminant Candidate List Chemicals
5 Sorting and Screening of Potential Drinking Water Contaminants: New and Existing Chemicals Under the Toxic Substances Control Act
6 Emerging Chemical Drinking Water Contaminants
7 New and Emerging Analytical Techniques for the Detection of Organic Contaminants in Water
8 Emerging Pathogens: Names to Know and Bugs to Watch Out For
9 Methods to Identify and Detect Microbial Contaminants in Drinking Water
10 Biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems: Significance and Control
11 New and Emerging Drinking Water Treatment Technologies
12 Emerging Drinking Water COntaminant Databases: A European Perspective
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff