21 U.S.C. § 349 — Bottled drinking water standards; publication in Federal Register

(a) Except as subsection (b) provides, whenever the Administrator^* of the Environmental Protection Agency prescribes interim or revised national primary drinking water regulations under the Public Health Service Act, the Secretary^* must consult with the Administrator. Within 180 days after those drinking water regulations are issued, the Secretary must either promulgate matching amendments to the bottled drinking water regulations under this chapter, or publish in the Federal Register the reasons for not making such amendments.

(b) (1) At least 180 days before a national primary drinking water regulation the EPA Administrator issues for a contaminant takes effect, the Secretary must promulgate a matching "standard of quality" regulation for that contaminant in bottled water, or find that such a regulation is not necessary because the contaminant is present in water used by public water systems but not in water used for bottled water. The effective date for the bottled-water standard must match the effective date of the national primary drinking water regulation — except for a standard of quality regulation the Secretary issued before August 6, 1996, that as of that date still lacked an established effective date; for those, the Secretary must issue monitoring requirements within 2 years of August 6, 1996. (2) A regulation the Secretary issues under this subsection must include whatever monitoring requirements the Secretary determines are appropriate for bottled water. (3) Such a regulation must require: (A) for contaminants where the EPA's national rule sets a maximum contaminant level, the bottled water rule must set a maximum contaminant level no less strict than the EPA's; (B) for contaminants where the EPA's national rule instead requires a treatment technique, the bottled water rule must require protections no less protective of public health than what public water systems using that technique must meet. (4) (A) If the Secretary does not issue a regulation under this subsection within the period described in paragraph (1), the EPA's national primary drinking water regulation automatically becomes, as of the date the Secretary was required to act, the regulation that applies to bottled water. (B) When that happens, the Secretary must, by that same date, publish a Federal Register notice specifying the content of the now-applicable regulation, including its monitoring requirements, and stating that its effective date matches the effective date of the underlying Safe Drinking Water Act regulation — or, if the pre-1996 exception in paragraph (1) applies, that the effective date is no later than 2 years and 180 days after August 6, 1996.