Drinking Water Quality Standards (DWQS)‐UnitedStates

Abstract

In 1974, the U.S. Congress, through the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), created the first‐ever mandatory national program to protect consumers from harmful contaminants in drinking water. There have been several amendments to the Act—the most recent in 1996. The SDWA requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set national drinking water quality standards (DWQS). The EPA has set primary and secondary DWQS for chemical, physical, radiological, and microbiological contaminants listed in Tables and. More Americans are now served by water systems without health risk violations since the EPA began tracking violations around 1980.

A molecular laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique for the detection of nitrogen in water

“…The World Health Organization (WHO) established guidelines for N in drinking water (11.3 mg mL À1 ), 4 and Canada and the U.S. have also established similar guidelines (10 mg mL À1 ). 5,6 Therefore, it is crucial to determine the N content in water for aquatic ecosystem balance. The conventional methods for detecting N in water include the alkaline potassium persulfate digestion ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometric method 7 and Kjeldahl method.…”