The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making it easier for the public to view Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) results with its release of the eighth set of data. The UCMR 5 Data Finder allows interested parties to see specific results for 30 chemical contaminants including 29 varieties of PFAS and lithium.
USEPA uses the UCMR to collect data for contaminants suspected of being present in drinking water and do not currently have regulatory standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The monitoring provides USEPA and other interested parties with nationally representative data on the occurrence of contaminants in drinking water, the number of people potentially being exposed, and an estimate of the levels of that exposure. The data provides justification for regulatory determinations and other actions to protect public health.
To improve accessibility and transparency of the UCMR occurrence data, the USEPA standardized the data fields across the UCMR datasets and developed two tools:
The tools were created by USEPA to allow the general public to easily search for analytical results from each UCMR cycle. The results selected can be downloaded as a Microsoft Excel file and UCMR occurrence data text files. USEPA also shared Instructions for Accessing UCMR Results and the Data Summary.