More on SDWA from Elena H. Humphreys with her CRS report (updated 3 March 2021): 'Regulating Contaminants Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)'
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Introduction
Detections of contaminants (e.g., per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS] and 1,4-dioxane) in public water supplies have raised questions about the quality of drinking water and increased congressional interest in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) efforts to regulate contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Congress enacted SDWAin 1974 to address the quality of public drinking water supplies and protect public health.A key part of the act is the authority for EPA to regulate contaminants in public water supplies. Since enactment, Congress has revised the act’s process for contaminant regulation twice, in 1986 and in 1996. The 1996 amendments established specific contaminant identification, assessment, and regulatory determination processes for the purpose of focusing regulatory resources and requirements toward contaminants of greatest public health concern.
Since 1996, EPA has updated several drinking water regulations, promulgated regulations for additional contaminants under other SDWAauthorities, and evaluated more than 7,500 contaminants for potential regulation. However, the agency has not promulgated new regulations using the statutory regulatory determination process.
In response to the detections of unregulated contaminants in drinking water and concerns about EPA’s regulatory pace, legislation has been introduced in the 116th Congress and recent Congresses to address contaminant regulation under SDWA. Proposals include broadly revising the act’s regulatory provisions and/or requiring EPAto promulgate regulations for specific contaminants, among others.
Congressional interest in SDWA regulatory development provisions has centered on
EPA’s implementation of the statutory criteria for making a determination to regulate a contaminant;
how costs and affordability are considered when setting drinking water standards; and
EPA’s regulatory pace under the current framework.
SDWA requires EPA to use the best available, peer-reviewed science to characterize a contaminant’s health effects and occurrence in water supplies to determine whether a contaminant warrants national regulation. EPA has long recognized that limited data on unregulated contaminants of concern has hindered the agency’s ability to make regulatory determinations. In a 2011 report, the U.S.Government Accountability Office (GAO)made a similar finding. EPA’s efforts to develop peer-reviewed science necessary to support regulatory determinations for unregulated contaminants—or to update existing contaminant regulations—have been affected by data availability and available agency resources, among other factors.
Lots more to read.
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