President Bush recently signed a $112.7-billion measure that included the official lowering of the amount of arsenic allowed in the nation's drinking water. According to the Associated Press, the bill included funding for many water-related issues through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is $4.4 billion over last year's amount and $2 billion above what Bush proposed.
The arsenic provision requires the EPA to lower the allowable amount of arsenic in drinking water to 10 parts per billion (ppb) from the previous standard of 50 ppb. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said water systems would be required to meet the new standard by 2006.
