The American Water Works Association released a new cost-impact assessment for an anticipated perchlorate regulation that is currently pending at the U.S. EPA. 

This new assessment updates a 2009 review of cost by including additional treatment strategies and accounting for regulatory limits already in place in California and Massachusetts. In addition to ion exchange, this assessment considers costs associated with blending, source abandonment and development of new sources. 

In all, the estimated national compliance costs for a perchlorate maximum contaminant level ranging from 2 to 24 parts per billion is smaller than estimated compliance costs for other drinking water regulations. 

According to Kevin Morley, AWWA Government Affairs, the relatively low national compliance cost reflects the fact that only a small number of public water systems are expected to be affected by any potential perchlorate regulation. 

However, Morley says, “Because only a small number of systems would carry the cost, we expect the economic impact to individual systems to be significant. Small water systems in particular could see treatment costs increase by three dollars per 1,000 gallons.” 

The full assessment is available for download on the AWWA website.