Safe Drinking Water Act

Enacted in 1974, then amended in 1986 and 1996, the Safe Drinking Water Act covers regulation of drinking water systems by EPA.

With the 1974 act, Congress recognized information suggesting that organic chemicals were contaminating major surface and underground supplies of drinking water, that underground injection wells were one of the major threats to our aquifers, and that public water supply systems were antiquated and increasingly becoming a threat to public health.

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In 1986, Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to quicken EPA’s response in issuing standards and implementing the act.

These amendments did the following:

  • Mandated issuance of standards for 83 specified contaminants by 1989 with new standards on 25 more contaminants to be issued every three years thereafter. (Of the currently issued standards, 15 to 20 are pesticides.)
  • Regulated lead in drinking water.
  • Increased EPA’s regulatory powers.
  • Provided for increased protection of sole-source aquifers.
  • Required each state to prepare a Wellhead Protection Program.

Even though the Safe Drinking Water Act has moved along since 1986, the EPA has fallen behind on the schedule of deadlines for promulgating the remaining drinking water standards.

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Currently promulgated Safe Drinking Water Act standards take on importance outside the Safe Drinking Water Act as they make up health-based goals, which are the standards for cleaning up groundwater at Superfund sites. Some states are adopting the Safe Drinking Water Act’s drinking water standards for groundwater quality protection in other contexts.

In August 1996, Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to give it more flexibility to address actual risk while at the same time reducing some of the regulatory and cost burdens placed on consumers. Specific to the use of crop protection chemicals, the amendments to SDWA made the following changes:

  • Requires EPA to establish a national occurrence data base of regulated and unregulated contaminants.

Also, every 5 years the EPA must establish a list of 30 unregulated contaminants to be monitored. On September 17, 1999 [64 FR 180], EPA published its final rule for revisions to the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation for Public Water Systems. The final rule includes a list of contaminants to be monitored, procedures for selecting a representative nationwide sample of small public water systems that will be required to monitor, the frequency and schedule for monitoring, the sample points, and approved analytical methods. The list includes a number of pesticides. The rule becomes effective on January 1, 2001.

  • Removed an EPA requirement to publish every 3 years a list of 25 contaminants to be regulated and replaced it with more flexible requirements to list unregulated contaminants that may require regulation every 5 years.
  • Gives EPA more flexibility in setting Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs).
  • Requires EPA to use peer reviewed science, risk assessment, and cost/benefit analysis when establishing or modifying drinking water standards.
  • Provides monitoring flexibility and financial assistance to water systems.
  • Requires development of estrogenic substances screening program for water contaminants which may include pesticides and other chemical substances.
  • Creates voluntary incentive-based Source Water Protection Program which allows local communities to petition the state for needed resources to address water quality concerns and provides financial resources to agricultural producers to address source water problems.
  • Requires water systems to provide extensive new information to consumers as well as EPA on both regulated and, for the first time, priority unregulated contaminants.

In August 1997, EPA issued State Source Water Assessment and Protection Program final guidance. It addresses the law’s requirement that states identify the areas that are sources of public drinking water, assess water system’s susceptibility to contamination, and inform the public of the results. States have until February 1999 (with a possible 18-month extension) to develop a source water assessment program.

In August 1998, EPA issued final regulations concerning consumer confidence reports. The rule requires community water systems to prepare and provide to their customers annual consumer confidence reports on the quality of water delivered to the system.

Drinking Water Contaminant Candidates

In March 1998, EPA issued a final list of contaminants that it will consider in setting priorities under the Safe Drinking Water Act. These contaminants are not now subject to regulation, but are known or anticipated to occur in public drinking water systems. The list will supply candidates to EPA over the next few years for a variety of regulatory options, including formal rulemakings or lesser actions such as development of health advisories, guidance documents, and research. The original draft list had 58 chemical and 13 microbiological contaminants. Several changes were made, including the deletion of aldicarb. The final list has 10 microbiological contaminants and 50 chemicals. Pesticides on the final list are: 1,3-dichloropropene, acetochlor, alachlor ESA (a degradation of alachlor), aldrin, triazines and degradation products, DCPA mono-acid degradate, DCPA di-acid degradate, DDE, diazinon, dieldrin, disulfoton, diuron, EPTC, fonofos, linuron, methyl bromide, metolachlor, metribuzin, molinate, perchlorate, prometon, terbacil, and terbufos.

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