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The United States Geological Survey (“USGS”) updated in May its health-based screening levels (“HBSLs”).
USGS describes HBSLs as non-enforceable water-quality benchmarks.
USGS states that these water-quality benchmarks can be used to:
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Supplement United States Environmental Protection Agency Maximum Contaminant Levels and Human Health Benchmarks for Pesticides
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Determine whether contaminants found in surface-water or groundwater sources of drinking water may indicate a potential human-health concern
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Help prioritize monitoring efforts
USGS states that the HBSLs were updated in May in order to:
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Update toxicity information in benchmarks, when possible, for the 808 contaminants included in the online searchable HBSL database, including 31 new contaminants added since the last HBSL update in 2014
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Update all HBSLs to be consistent with new EPA methods and exposure assumptions
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Replace HBSLs for four contaminants that have new EPA Chronic Noncancer or Carcinogenic HHBPs
A link to the HBSLs can be found here.
