Health Risk Reduction and Cost Analysis for Radon in Drinking Water

The Health Risk Reduction and Cost Analysis (HRRCA) for radon in drinking water was signed on February 5, 1999. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the HRRCA in the Federal Register for public comment. The HRRCA was prepared in support of development of a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for radon in drinking water, as required by Section 1412(b)(13) of the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

EPA received many comments and provided responses to significant comments in the proposed rule, signed in October 1999. The February, 1999 HRRCA has been revised and is now part of the "Regulatory Impact Analysis and Revised Health Risk Reduction and Cost Analysis" document. This document is available for review in the OW Docket (hardcopy and electronic PDF file). For information on how to access docket materials, please call (202) 260-3027 between 9:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday or E-mail ow-docket@epa.gov

In the HRRCA, EPA:

• Intends to provide a neutral and factual analysis of the costs, benefits, and other impacts of controlling radon levels in drinking water;

• Evaluates radon control levels in groundwater supplies of 100, 300, 500, 700, 1000, 2000, and 4000 pCi/L; and

• Presents information on the costs and benefits of implementing multimedia mitigation (MMM) programs to reduce the risk of radon exposure in indoor air.

The notice does not include any decisions regarding the choice of a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for radon in drinking water.

Since the HRRCA is a cost-benefit tool to analyze an array of radon levels, many of the issues to be addressed in the regulatory development process (e.g. the selection of a MCL, Best Available Technology (BAT), and monitoring framework) are not analyzed in the document, but will be presented in the proposed rule.

Click here to read the Federal Register notice Online
Click here to view the map of radon zones referred to on page 24 of the HRRCA.
Click here to view the map of General Patterns of Radon Occurrence in Groundwater in the United States.
Click here to read the appendices to the HRRCA.

Click here to download the Acrobat PDF version ~ Click here for Help with Adobe Acrobat

EPA held a stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C. to present and discuss the HRRCA on Tuesday, March 16, 1999. To read the meeting summary, go the meeting summaries webpage at https://www.epa.gov/safewater/ndwacsum.html#radon