Full Description

Considerable interest exists among water supply professionalsin how well public health protections are generated by thefederal drinking water regulatory program as administered underthe US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Safe DrinkingWater Act. This interest is heightened because of Office ofManagement and Budget pressure on federal agencies to developcommon performance measures to track the progress of everyregulatory program.It is challenging to devise clear, meaningful measures ofprogress for public sector entities such as the USEPA's federaldrinking water regulatory program. Limitations are inherent inthe relevant public health data, and it is difficult to attribute anyobservable trend in public health statistics to drinking water orother possible causal agents. In addition, performance measuresthat are easily countable may steer results in the wrong direction,whereas indicators that are more oriented toward theultimate desired outcomes (e.g., better health) may be uncountableor not easily interpreted.This article offers a useful perspective on performance indicatorsand recommends ideas for how such indicators might beapplied to the drinking water regulatory program for defining themonitoring and related data collection requirements. Includes 8 references, figure.

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Edition: Vol. 98 - No. 4 Published: 04/01/2006 Number of Pages: 9 File Size: 1 file , 210 KB