Assessing Emerging Contaminants of Concern in Drinking Water
As part of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the National Science & Technology Council’s (NSTC) Contaminants of Emerging Concern Strategy Team announced a research initiative in August 2022 to identify and assess contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in drinking water.1 This initiative focused on giving more communities, families, and children access to clean drinking water. CECs are often difficult to understand in terms of the full scope of potential impact and harm to human health due to limited data at the time of discovery.
The Strategy Team provided an update in January 2024 that announced a National Emerging Contaminants Research Initiative Implementation Plan with specifics on how to identify, track, and mitigate CECs in the environment.2 Input will come from subject matter experts from a variety of industries. Short-term and long-term goals for the plan are grouped into three categories:
- Cross-governmental coordination and action
- Knowledge management and data sharing
- Community engagement and communication
CIL works with leading government and industry researchers to develop stable isotope-labeled and native standards used to qualify and quantify contaminants of concern for water testing programs. CIL offers many product lines for water analysis studies and works to produce standards for CECs as they’re identified. Current offerings from CIL include standards in the following categories:
