National Center for Innovation in Small Drinking Water Systems

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for a National Research Center that will: identify, develop, demonstrate and facilitate widespread acceptance and applicability of novel and innovative technologies and approaches to measure or treat groups of microbiological or chemical contaminants, or their precursors; apply novel new information technology systems; and improve the sustainability of small drinking water systems. While larger Community Water Systems (CWS) serve a greater proportion of the overall population, ninety-two percent of the nation's CWS serve communities with populations of 10,000 or less and supply drinking water for more than fifty-three million Americans. These small systems do not typically have the resources to seek out, evaluate and apply innovative approaches that could provide better drinking water contamination solutions and improve public health protection. Public health-associated violation rates are consistently more than 3 times higher among those CWS that serve less than 10,000 than the larger systems. Because it is so challenging for these small systems to comply with existing standards, progression of public health standards on a national level is hindered.

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