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Alternative Monitoring
Guidelines
The Alternative Monitoring Guidelines (formerly known as Permanent Monitoring
Relief (PMR)), are being issued pursuant to the requirements of Section
1418 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), as amended in August 1996.
States have the discretion to decide whether or not to adopt these guidelines.
States that elect to offer alternative monitoring must meet the requirements
of Section 1453 of the SDWA to develop and obtain EPA approval of their
source water assessment programs, and to complete a source water assessment
for the systems that will use alternative monitoring. Guidance for
states to use in meeting the source water assessment requirements has
also been issued pursuant to Section 1453 of the SDWA.
These alternative monitoring provisions were developed in conjunction
with an effort to revise the chemical monitoring regulations, which has
been known as Chemical Monitoring Reform. EPA expects to promulgate
revisions to the chemical monitoring regulations in August, 1998.
EPA plans to incorporate these alternative monitoring guidelines into
the chemical monitoring regulations, in order to consolidate the federal
provisions for chemical monitoring in a single, comprehensive regulation.
Before developing these provisions, EPA held three stakeholder
meetings and then formed an EPA/State work group to evaluate the issues
raised by the stakeholders. EPA issued these guidelines in draft
form on July 3, 1997, for public comment, and held public meetings in
Denver, Chicago, and Washington D.C. to explain the provisions and solicit
comments. This document reflects the results of that process with
respect to the alternative monitoring guidelines.
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