Full Description

Approximately half of the waterborne disease outbreaksdocumented annually in the United States arecaused by contaminated groundwater. In 2006, the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency promulgated thefinal Ground Water Rule to reduce the risk of exposureto fecal contamination that may be present in communityand noncommunity public groundwater systems.In most states, private drinking water systems are notregulated by local health and environmental agencies.The goal of the study presented in this article was toassess the microbial, physical, and chemical quality ofgroundwater in individual wells and small public watersystems in Arizona, and it was the first such study in anarid region of the United States. Of the well sites sampled,43% of the systems were positive for total coliforms,16% for fecal coliforms, and 4% for Escherichiacoli. In addition, 95% of systems exceeded at leastone primary and/or secondary drinking water standard,suggesting that better guidance is needed to ensure thewater quality of these systems. Includes 57 references, tables.

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Edition: Vol. 101 - No. 9 Published: 09/01/2009 Number of Pages: 12File Size: 1 file , 350 KB