Drinking Water Regulations and Standards

The aim of the present volume is to supply an updated and exhaustive overview of the implementation of the Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption in the Member States.

The collected data have been processed, analysing the Directive implementation in the Member States, with regard to each of the 50 parameters included in the Directive, and comparing them with the standards set out by the World Health Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The present book has dealt with the evolution of EU regulations related to water intended for human consumption, starting from the need to achieve a common regulatory framework in the drinking water field, initially through directive 80/778/EEC and later through Directive 98/83/EC. The comparison between the provisions established by the European Council and the WHO/EPA guidelines shows the current state of drinking water regulations.

The last part of the work concerns the decision criteria adopted to update the current Directive, which is currently subject to revision, since both technology and scientific knowledge associated with drinking water quality have undergone substantial development.

To produce this book a group of different experts was involved. The authors who played a critical role in the development and quality of this document are: Guido Premazzi (JRC, Ispra, Italy) whose long time experience in the field of regulations was essential for the general setting of the work, Fiorina De Novellis and Claudia Lasagna (Iride Acqua Gas S.p.A.) who draw the main scheme of the work and carried out the final revision, Nicoletta Cassinelli and Giorgio Temporelli (independent consultants, Genoa, Italy) who had a fundamental role in searching and comparing the national transpositions of the Directive, and finally Daniela Bergamotti (Iride Acqua Gas, Genoa, Italy) who took care of the translation and the critical revision of the text.