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"EPA's long-awaited rules will set the minimum requirements for healthy drinking water and will go a long way to ensure the safety of our drinking water supplies," said Mohammad N. Akhter, MD, MPH, executive director of the APHA. "These new rules will help public health professionals to better assess the health risks associated with certain levels of contaminants and pathogens commonly found in drinking water and to better protect the nation's health."

Under proposed requirements, suppliers nationwide would issue annual Consumer Confidence Reports, revealing the quality of local drinking water; whether it meets federal safety standards; data on violations and enforcement; sources of the water, including rivers, lakes and aquifers; likely sources of contaminants; and, in systems that violate the standards, what the health risks are. EPA is now poised to unveil their final rules detailing what must be included in the reports and how information is to be made public.

"As former health commissioner, I had the difficult job of turning off the water for millions of Washington-area residents because the water was unsafe to drink," said Akhter, a former health director in the District of Columbia and in Missouri. "At that time, there were no monitoring reports to warn officials or residents. If rules were in place, then the community would have been prepared to accept this decision and force long-term action to improve our drinking water supply."

The American Public Health Association, the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals, represents more than 50,000 members from more than 50 public health occupations.

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