EPA Releases List of Laboratories Approved by EPA for UCMR5 as Testing Begins Nationwide

Testing under the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) began on January 1. UCMR 5 requires public water systems (PWSs) to test for 29 PFAS and lithium. EPA recently released the list of laboratories that met the UCMR 5 laboratory approval program application and proficiency testing criteria for the three methods included: methods 537.1 and 533 for PFAS and method 200.7 for lithium. The Agency anticipates that the first set of UCMR 5 results will be publicly available in mid-2023.

Additionally, the Agency announced three upcoming UCMR 5 resources.

• Webinars on communicating UCMR 5 results: EPA will host identical webinars on February 22 and 23, 2023, to provide PWSs with information on accessing their monitoring results and a comprehensive approach to communicating UCMR 5 results to their customers. Registration will open in mid-January.
• A sampling video that illustrates how small PWSs (those that serve 10,000 or fewer people) should complete their UCMR 5 sampling. The video will be available online in the near future.
• Health-based reference values for UCMR 5: EPA plans to post a document soon that will provide context around the UCMR 5 results in relation to EPA’s established minimum reporting levels and, if available, health-based reference values. The document will be available online.