Federal Safe Drinking Water Act Oversight

Key drinking water issues include problems caused by specific contaminants, such as the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), perchlorate, and lead, as well as the related issue of the appropriate federal role in providing financial assistance for water infrastructure projects. Congress last reauthorised the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1996, and although funding authority for most SDWA programs expired in FY2003, broad reauthorization efforts are not expected as EPA, states, and water utilities remain busy implementing the requirements of the 1996 amendments. Concerns about perchlorate in drinking water also have returned to the congressional agenda, after the past Congress enacted several provisions on this issue. H.R. 213 has been introduced to require EPA to set a drinking water standard for perchlorate in 2007, and a January 2005 National Academy of Sciences report on the health effects of perchlorate has increased oversight interest in perchlorate regulatory activities at EPA. Concerns over the security of the nation's drinking water supplies were addressed by the 107th Congress through the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act (P.L. 107-188), which amended SDWA to require community water systems to conduct vulnerability assessments and prepare emergency response plans. Subsequent congressional action has involved oversight and funding of water security assessment and planning efforts and research. An ongoing SDWA issue involves the growing cost and complexity of drinking water standards and the ability of water systems, especially small, rural systems, to comply with standards. The issue of the cost of drinking water standards, particularly the new arsenic standard, has merged with the larger debate over the federal role in assisting communities with financing drinking water infrastructure - an issue that has become more challenging in a time of tightened budgets. Congress authorized a drinking water state revolving fund (DWSRF) program in 1996 to help communities finance projects needed to meet standards. For FY2005, Congress provided $843 million for the DWSRF program, and the President has requested $850 million for FY2006. Notwithstanding this program, studies show that a large funding gap exists and will grow as SDWA requirements increase and infrastructure ages.

Congress has long deliberated on the condition of drinking water infrastructure and drinking water quality as well as the financial and technical challenges some public water systems face in ensuring the delivery of safe and adequate water supplies. Several events and circumstancesâincluding source water contamination incidents; water infrastructure damage from natural disasters, such as hurricanes; detection of elevated lead levels in tap water in various cities and schools; and the nationwide need to repair or replace aging drinking water infrastructureâhave increased national attention to these issues. America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018. Chapter 1 focuses on the drinking water provisions of Title II and Title IV of AWIA, which authorize appropriations for several drinking water and wastewater infrastructure programs for projects that promote compliance, address aging drinking water infrastructure and lead in school drinking water, and increase drinking water infrastructure resilience to natural hazards. Chapter 2 summarizes the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and its major programs and regulatory requirements. The quality of water delivered by public water systems has been regulated at the federal level since enactment of the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Since then, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued regulations for more than 90 contaminants, and all states (except Wyoming) have assumed primary responsibility for administering the federal drinking water program and overseeing public water system compliance. Congress last broadly amended the law in 1996. Among the key provisions, the 1996 amendments authorized a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program to help public water systems finance improvements needed to comply with federal drinking water regulations and to address the most serious risks to human health as reported in chapter 3. Drinking water contaminated with lead in Flint, Michigan, renewed awareness of the danger lead poses to the nation's drinking water supply. Lead exposure through drinking water is caused primarily by the corrosion of plumbing materials, such as pipes, that carry water from a water system to pipes in homes. EPA set national standards to reduce lead in drinking water with the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). Chapters 4-7 review the issue of elevated lead in drinking water. According to DOD, about 3 million people in the United States receive drinking water from DOD public water systems, which are to comply with EPA and state health-based regulations. EPA and DOD have detected elevated levels of two unregulated, DOD-identified emerging contaminants found in firefighting foamâPFOS and PFOAâin drinking water at or near installations. Perchlorate, an unregulated chemical used by DOD in rocket fuel, can also be found in drinking water. Chapters 8-11 review DOD management of these drinking water contaminants.