Appendix 4 Quality requirements to drinking water, Danish Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Factors and Health

Appendix 4
Quality requirements to drinking water

Main components in drinking water

Parameter	Unit	Value at point of distribution input at waterworks¹	Value in service connection at building²	Comments
Colour³	mg Pt/l	5	15
Turbidity³	FTU	0.3	0.5
Smell Taste	Subjective evaluation			The water must not have an abnormal taste or smell.
Temperature	° C			It should be ensured that the water has a maximum tempe-rature of 12° at the water tap.
pH		7.5 - 8.5		The water must not be aggressive.
Conductivity	mS/m	> 30
NVOC	mg C/l	4
Total residue³	mg/l	1,500
Calcium	mg Ca/l			The content should not exceed 200 mg/l.
Magnesium	mg Mg/l	50
Hardness, total	° dH			The hardness of the water should be between 5 and 30⁰ H.
Sodium	mg Na/l	175
Potassium	mg K/l	10
Ammonium	mg NH₄/l	0.05⁴
Iron	mg Fe/l	0.15⁵	0.2
Manganese	mg Mn/l	0.02⁵	0.05
Bicarbonate	mg HCO₃/l			The content should be above 100 mg/l.
Chloride	mg CI/l	250
Sulfat sulphate	mg SO₄/l	250
Nitrate	mg NO₃/l	50
Nitrite	mg NO₂/l	<0.01	0.1	The content should be less than 0.5 mg/l when appplying chloramine.
Total content of phosphorus³	mg P/l	0.15
Fluorid	mg F/l	1.5
Oxygen	mg O₂/l		5
Aggressive carbon dioxide³	mg CO₂/l	< 2
Hydrogen sulphide³	mg H₂S/l	< 0.05
Methane³	mg CH₄/l	< 0.01
Chlorine, free and total³,⁶	mg Cl/l			The content should be as low as possible and comply with microbiological requirements.

1)	The sample shall be taken at the point of distribution input, alternatively from the clean water tank at the waterworks.
2)	The sample shall be taken at the entrance to the building (at the water meter or the nearest water tap hereafter) only when the water has been running for minimum 5 minutes to ensure flushing of installations and the service connection.
3)	The investigations shall be made according to a method assigned by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
4)	In order to avoid nitrite in the line system, the content in oxidized and filtered water should be < 0.05 mg/l. A content of ammonium exceeding 0.5 mg/l may be accepted, and the content of ammonium is not converted into nitrite in the line system for unfilte- red drinking water.
5)	Deviations as a result of renewal of filter materials may occur, but should be reduced to a minimum.
6)	Or the remains of another disinfectant.

Microbiological parameters¹

Parameter	Unit	Value at point of distribution input at waterworks¹	Value in service connection at building²	Comments
Coliform bacteria	per 100 ml	n.d.	n.d.
Escherichia coli (E. coli)	per 100 ml	n.d.	n.d.
Colony Count at 37⁰ C	per ml	10	30	New analytical method applied in 2001.
Colony Count at 22⁰ C	per ml	70	250	New analytical method applied in 2001.
Enterococci	per 100 ml	n.d.	n.d.
Clostridium perfringens, including spores³)	per 50 ml	n.d.	n.d.

1)	The tests are made according to a method assigned by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
2)	The sample shall be taken at the entrance to the building (at the water meter or the nearest water tap hereafter) only when the water has been running for minimum 5 minutes to ensure flushing of installations and the service connection.
3)	The parameter is measured only if the water originates from or is influenced by surface water.
n.d. = not detected by the assigned method.

Inorganic tracers

Parameter	Unit	Value at point of distribution input at waterworks¹	Value in service connection at building²	Comments
Metals
Aluminium	m g Al/l	100	200
Antimony	m g Sb/l	2	5
Arsenic	m g As/l	5	10
Barium	m g Ba/l	700	700
Lead	m g Pb/l	5	10 15	Calculated as an average value³ After 12 hours residence time in the consumer's installation.
Boron	m g B/l	1000⁴	1000
Cadmium	m g Cd/l	2	5
Chromium, total	m g Cr/l	20	50
Cyanide	m g CN/l	50	50
Copper	m g Cu/l	100	2000 2000	Calculated as an average value³ After 12 hours residence time in the consumer's installation.
Mercury⁵	m g Hg/l	1	1
Nickel	m g Ni/l	10	20
Selenium	m g Se/l	10	10
Silver⁶)	m g Ag/l	10	10
Tin	m g Sn/l	10	1500	After 12 hours residence time in the consumer's installation.
Zinc	m g Zn/l	100	3000 5000	Calculated as an average value³) After 12 hours residence time in the consumer's installation.
Halogenous transformation products
Sum of chlorite and chlorate⁷	m g Cl/l	30	30
Bromate⁸	m g BrO₃/l	10	10
Radioactivity indicators
Tritium⁹	Bq/l	100
Total indicative dose ⁹,¹⁰	mSv/year	0.1

1)	The sample shall be taken at the entrance to the building (at the water meter or the nearest water tap hereafter) only when the water has been running for minimum 5 minutes to ensure flushing of installations and the service connection. If the water works can document that there has been no addition of metals in the distribution system, the test can be made at the point of distribution input at the water works instead.
2)	The water shall be taken from the consumers water tap, after the water has been stagnant in the installations for 12 hours or by another method as assigned by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
3)	The average value is calculated according to a method assigned by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
4)	Drinking water should have the lowest content of boron possible and preferably below 300m g/l.
5)	Drinking water should have the lowest content of mercury possible and preferably below 0,1 m g/l.
6)	Only to be analysed if silver is used as a material or a chemical.
7)	The decomposition products are present in the purchased 15% sodium hypochlorite solvent and will increase in concentration in stagnant water at the water works. The decomposition products can also result from a conversion of chloride in the distribution system and if chlorine dioxide is used for disinfection.
8)	Is only examined when disinfection is done with chloride, ozone and similar strong oxidizing substances.
9)	The measurement is made at selected stations on a national scale.
10)	The measurement of the total indicative dose shall be carried out according to specifications from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

Organic micro-pollutants

Parameter	Value at point of distribution outlet at waterworks¹	Value in service connection at building²	Comments
Chlorinated organic solvents
Volatile organochlorine compounds³	1	1	The value is for each substance.
Sum of volatile organochlorine compounds³	3	3	The total value can only be used if the concentration of each substance is below 1 m g/l.
Vinyl chloride	0.3	0,5
Chlorobenzenes, (mono, di and tri)	1	1	The value is for each substance.
Sum of trihalo- methanes⁴	25	25	The chlorination should be carried out so the content is as low as possible.

Content in oil products
C₉ + C₁₀ aromatics⁵	1	1	Indicators are sum of the following substances: 1-methyl-3-ethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene.
Benzene⁵	1	1
Naphthalene^5,6	2	2
Methyl tertiary butyl ether MTBE⁵			The substance is a constituent of modern petrol products.
1,2 dibromoethane⁵	0.01⁷	0.01⁷	The substance was a constituent of former leaded petrol products.
Total petroleum hydrocarbons)⁵	5	10

PAH compounds⁶
Flouranthene	0.1	0.1
Benzo (a) pyrene	0.01	0.01
Sum of benzo (b) fluoranthene, benzo (k) flouranthene, benzo (ghi)perylene and indeno (1,2,3-cd) pyrene	0.1	0.1

Pesticides⁸
Aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlor, heptachlo- repoxide	0.03	0.03	The value is for each substance
Other pesticides	0.1	0.1	The value is for each substance
Sum of all pesticides	0.5	0.5

Phenols
Phenol	0.5	0.5
2-methylphenol⁶	0.5	0.5
3-methylphenol⁶	0.5	0.5
2.3- di-methylphenol	0.5	0.5
2.4- di-methylphenol	0.5	0.5
2.5- di-methylphenol	0.5	0.5
2.6- di-methylphenol	0.5	0.5
Sum of octylphenol and nonylphenol	20	20

Chlorophenols
2-Chlorophenol	0.1	0.1
4-Chlorophenol	0.1	0.1
2,4- Dichlorophenol	0.1	0.1
2,6- Dichlorophenol	0.1	0.1
2,4,6- Trichlorophenol	0.1	0.1
Pentachlo- rophenol	0.01⁹	0.01⁹
4-Chloro-2- methylphenol	0.1	0.1
6-Chloro-2- methylphenol	0.1	0.1
4,6-Dichloro-2- methylphenol	0.1	0.1

Phthalate
Di-ethyl-hexyl- phthalates (DEHP)	1	1
Sum of other phthalates	1	5

Detergents
Anionic detergents	100	100

Monomers from polymer materials
Acrylamide	0.1	0.1	Use of chemicals with content of this substance should not be used for water treatment.
Acrylonitrile	0.05	0.1
Epichlorhydrin¹⁰	0.1	0.1
Formaldehyde	10	50
Styrene	0.2	1
Vinyl chloride	0,3	0,5

1)	The sample shall be taken at the entrance to the building (at the water meter or the nearest water tap hereafter) only when the water has been running for minimum 5 minutes to ensure flushing of installations and the service connection.
2)	The water shall be taken from the consumers water tap, after the water has been stagnant in the installations for 12 hours or by another method as assigned by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
3)	Volatile organochlorine compounds are di- and trichlormethane, dichlorbrometene, chlordibrommethane and tribromethane, tetrachlortene and tetrachlorethane.
4)	Trihalomethane are the sum of the content of trichlormethan, dichlorbrommethan, clordibrommethan and tribrommethan, made by chlorination og the natural content og organic matters in water.
5)	Indicators for oil- and benzen products.
6)	Indicators for tar products.
7)	The limit value cannot be measured by a method normally used in the laboratory. There must, until better techniques has been developed, be used a method with a detection limit of max. 0,005m g/l.
8)	Pesticides are organic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, nematocider, acaricides, algicides, rodenticides and slimicides as well as similar products (for example growth regulators) and their metabolits.
9)	This limit value cannot be measures well enough with the method normally used in the laboratory. Until better techniques has been developed, a method with a detection limit of max. 0,01 m g/l.
10)	The parameter values refer to the content of monomers in water according to the specification for maximum migration from similar polymer products in contact with the drinking water.