Background

Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) are physical, chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials that may cause adverse effects to human health or the environment but do not currently have a national primary drinking water regulation. They may be newly identified or reemerging, manufactured or naturally occurring. The emergent nature of CECs has resulted in notable gaps in knowledge regarding their properties, health effects, and potential treatments to reduce their contamination in the environment. The CEC Strategy Team addresses these gaps and provides a federal coordinated approach to CEC research.

Legislative Mandate

The CEC Interagency Working Group (IWG) was established in May 2020 in compliance with the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (Pub. L. 116-92; 15 U.S.C. §8952(b)), which directed the IWG to coordinate federal research on CECs. The IWG builds upon the work of the Task Force on Emerging Contaminants, formed in 2018 to develop the “Plan for Addressing Critical Research Gaps Related to Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water.” The CEC IWG updated that plan, provided technical advice for a national CEC research initiative, and launched interagency coordination actions. In the fall of 2021, the IWG was reconfigured as a NSTC Strategy Team (ST) under the Joint Subcommittee on Environment, Innovation, and Public Health (JEEP). The CEC Strategy Team is co-chaired by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). It includes 15 other federal Agencies. The group has three Coordination Teams: Non-Targeted Analysis and Effects Based Monitoring, Risk Characterization, and Research Partnerships. It has also coordinated an interagency project led by the EPA and the NIEHS under the National Toxicology program to address the effects of 6-p-phenylenediamine quinone (6-PPD-quinone) – a CEC commonly used in production of tires.

Activities

In 2022, the CEC Strategy Team released the National Emerging Contaminant Research Initiative (NECRI). The NECRI established broad interagency strategic goals to address critical research gaps in detection and assessment of emerging CECs in drinking water as well as to identify and mitigate their adverse health effects. The CEC Strategy Team followed up the NECRI report by developing an action-oriented Implementation Plan, released in 2024.