Drinking Water Analytical Services

The stakes for access to clean, safe drinking water are high: There are more than 170,000 public water systems in the United States, delivering more than 1 billion glasses of tap water to consumers daily.¹ These public water supplies are responsible for treating and testing water to U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) standards and state regulations.

For peace of mind, thousands of public water supply administrators turn to UL for help. UL offers the most complete analytical testing with expertise and a service portfolio that continues to expand. In fact, our U.S. drinking water laboratory was the first laboratory approved to test and certify to SDWA regulations in all 50 states.

We remain on the cutting edge of analytical testing technology, developing methods to test for unregulated emerging contaminants, such as hexavalent chromium (also known as chromium-6). We are also certified to test for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 3 (UCMR 3) List 1 and List 2 contaminants. Just as important, we put our expertise to work on testing a number of currently unregulated contaminants of growing concern regarding their potential effects on human health. Those contaminants include pesticides and herbicides, volatile organic compounds, radiochemistry, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products.

Finally, when drinking water is threatened, our team of water experts is available 24 hours a day in the United States for emergency response. The concern about safe water extends to fast-developing countries as well. In recognition of the growing awareness of the impact of unsafe drinking water in India, UL opened a laboratory there to provide local drinking water testing expertise and services. The Bangalore facility is equipped to conduct a wide variety of analytical testing using state-of-the-art instrumentation. In addition to providing commercial drinking water analytical services, the laboratory also supports the certification of drinking water treatment chemicals to ANSI/NSF 60 and drinking water components to ANSI/NSF 61.

1

"Water Facts," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water. June 2004. Web. 30 July 2012.
http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/sdwa/upload/2009_08_28_sdwa_fs_30ann_waterfacts_web.pdf