Abstract:
On January 22, 2001, the United States Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule reducing the drinking water standard for arsenic. However, on January 24, an executive memorandum was issued directing executive departments and agencies to hold up any proposed or newly promulgated rules until an appointee of the new administration could review them. While groups are challenging the new arsenic rule, North Carolina is moving forward with a proposal to change the state’s groundwater standard for arsenic in private drinking water wells.