STATEMENT
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2004 – The Air Transport Association today announced a joint plan, developed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to strengthen existing protocols governing the sampling and disinfection of airline drinking water:
“While we remain confident that the protocols now in place ensure that aircraft drinking water is just as safe as the municipal water systems that supply it, we have voluntarily agreed to take these additional steps to address any lingering questions about the quality of aircraft drinking water in light of a recent EPA study."
“Although we continue to have concerns about the EPA study, which conflicted with a more extensive study previously conducted by our members with EPA oversight, our members wanted to address, once and for all, questions the EPA raised about airline drinking water. The agreement we’re announcing today does just that.”
The agreement calls for the following measures:
- ATA member carriers will sample the drinking water from each aircraft in their fleets during the next year and report results quarterly to EPA;
- ATA member carriers will standardize the disinfection rate of aircraft drinking-water systems to once a quarter and drinking-water carts to once a month;
- If a drinking-water sample tests positive, ATA member carriers have agreed to immediately disinfect the aircraft drinking-water system or to stop making drinking water available until disinfection can occur. (Previously, EPA protocols called for a repeat sample to confirm positive test results before such action occurred.)
This agreement will remain in effect for two years and may be modified as ATA member carriers and the EPA learn more from the stepped-up sampling program. In the meantime, the agency will review its drinking-water regulatory provisions to determine how they might be tailored to address aircraft drinking-water systems.
As an immediate next step, EPA will look to expand this agreement to cover U.S. and international carriers that are not members of the Air Transport Association.
ATA airline members transport more than 90 percent of all U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic.
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