Revisions To Establish the Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6) for Public Water Systems

What it does

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or agency) is proposing the sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6). Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the UCMR program gathers data about unregulated contaminant occurrence in drinking water. The proposed UCMR 6 would require public water systems (PWSs) to collect national occurrence data for seven ultrashort organofluorine compounds (including certain PFAS), three pesticide metabolites, 13 semivolatile organic compounds, and seven purgeable organic compounds. Subject to the availability of appropriations, the EPA will require all community and non-transient non-community water systems (CWSs and NTNCWSs) serving 3,300 or more people, and a representative sample of PWSs serving fewer than 3,300 people, to conduct monitoring. These contaminants are not currently subject to national primary drinking water regulations (NPDWRs), and the EPA is proposing to require the collection of drinking water occurrence data to inform agency decisions. The data collected will be publicly available. The EPA is also announcing two public meetings (via webinar) to discuss this proposal of the sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6).

The Environmental Protection Agency's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What it would change

1 part of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

40 CFR 141

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 2040-AG33 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

Comments must be received on or before August 31, 2026. Comments on the information collection provisions of the proposed rule under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) must be received by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OMB-OIRA) on or before July 31, 2026. Please refer to the PRA section under "Statutory and Executive Order Reviews" in this preamble for specific instructions. Public meeting: the EPA will hold two identical virtual, public meetings on August 11, 2026 and August 12, 2026 at https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule- ucmr-meetings-and-materials. Please refer to the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for additional information on the public meetings.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket EPA-HQ-OW-2023-0469 on Regulations.gov
• Title 40 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register