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Feasibility Study <br />Water Treatment Plant <br />City of Lino Lakes, MN <br />WSB Project No. 015822-000 Page 3 <br />Manganese is not currently regulated as a national primary drinking water standard which means <br />there is no enforceable limit for manganese in drinking water. However, EPA is in the process of <br />determining whether to regulate manganese due to updated health effects information and <br />additional occurrence data. EPA has included manganese in the fourth Unregulated Contaminant <br />Monitoring Rule (UCMR4), which requires all public drinking water systems serving over 10,000 <br />people and selected small systems to monitor for manganese. EPA will also consider the health <br />effects in their regulatory determination and evaluate potential risks to adults, children, and <br />infants based on recent studies. <br />The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), in conjunction with studies conducted by others, <br />has determined that children and adults who drink water with high levels of manganese for an <br />extended period of time may have problems with memory, attention, and motor skills. Infants <br />(babies under one year old) may develop learning and behavior problems if they drink water with <br />too much manganese in it. Therefore, MDH has established a maximum recommended <br />manganese level for infants of 100 parts per billion (ppb) and 300 parts per billion (ppb) for adults <br />and children. <br />In addition to health effects, EPA’s Secondary Drinking Water Standards identify manganese as <br />having technical (staining) and aesthetic effects (taste, color). Manganese in water can stain <br />laundry, cause scaling on plumbing, and cause water to look, smell, or taste bad. Manganese can <br />also create a brownish-black or black stain on toilets, showers, bathtubs, and sinks.