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As the drinking water industry moves into the 21st century, utility professionals are beginning to reexamine traditional approaches to water regulation and delivery.  United States demographics are shifting with an increasing elderly population and more groups in special medical categories, such as transplant patients, who may have special requirements regarding the quality of their drinking water.  It is increasingly apparent that to meet these demands for higher and higher quality drinking water, the industry can no longer afford to treat more than 99% of its potable water for non-drinking purposes such as lawn watering, swimming, and car washing.  New and innovative treatment and delivery approaches are needed and the regulatory framework must be adjusted to encourage and permit this flexibility.

These considerations are especially pertinent for small and rural water systems which must bear the most significant financial and operational impacts of water regulatory initiatives.  To address these challenges, the National Rural Water Association in 1991 began to commission the preparation of concept or “white” papers to examine issues of affordability, balancing benefits and costs, conservatism in regulations and a variety of other standards and risk concerns. In this series, there are now 27 papers that were prepared by national authorities in their respective fields. This compilation forms an invaluable resource for regulatory and industry personnel who are charged with developing national regulatory policy and the responses to that policy.

Included with this compilation are seven regulatory briefing papers that provide concise summaries of pertinent information about contaminants of emerging regulatory concern.  Go to White Papers

Copyright © 2004 by National Rural Water Association. Compilation copyright © 2004 by National Rural Water Association. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

National Rural Water Association
2915 South 13^th Street, Duncan, OK 73533
580-252-0629, FAX 580-255-4476
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White Papers