Hot off the presses (22 November 2022) from Elena H. Humphreys - this CRS Report: 'Small Water Systems: Selected Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Provisions'.
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Summary
The nation’s public water systems face a range of challenges, including disruptions of safe and reliable water supplies due to cyberattacks or natural hazards, detections of unregulated contaminants in drinking water supplies, and long-standing challenges in financing repairs to or replacement of aging water infrastructure. Some small water systems have limited technical, managerial, and financial capacity to address these challenges.The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was enacted in 1974. The act established the federal role in regulating contaminants in public water supplies. SDWA authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate drinking water regulations. For more than 90 contaminants, EPA has issued regulations with treatment techniques or enforceable standards, called maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), as well as monitoring and reporting requirements. Federal drinking water regulations apply to the approximately 144,650 privately and publicly owned water systems that provide piped water for human consumption to at least 15 service connections or that regularly serve at least 25 people. Most federal drinking water regulations apply to noncommunity water systems, which include locations such as campgrounds or gas stations that have their own water systems but serve individuals temporarily. All federal drinking water regulations apply to the nearly 50,000 community water systems, which serve the same residences year-round. More than 91% of these water systems are relatively small, serving 10,000 or fewer individuals. These systems provide water to approximately 17% of the total population served by community water systems.
Small water systems have a relatively narrow rate base from which to operate and to finance infrastructure projects needed to comply with new or revised regulations, improve the resilience of their infrastructure to risks of malevolent acts or natural hazards, or repair or replace infrastructure, much of which was constructed more than 50 years ago. Limited technical and/or managerial capacity may affect the ability of small community water systems to implement certain drinking water regulations that include complex requirements, such as the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, which aim to control lead in tap water. Hiring and retaining skilled water system operators may also be a challenge for such systems.
Congress has included a suite of provisions in SDWA to promote the compliance capacity of public water systems. Of these, several are intended to improve small water system compliance, through (1) building capacity through training and development activities, (2) providing limited enforcement relief from drinking water regulations under certain circumstances, and (3) authorizing federal assistance for technical assistance for water systems, as well as for water infrastructure improvements. The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (P.L. 104-182) added many of these provisions to the statute. More recently, the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN Act; P.L. 114-322), America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (AWIA; P.L. 115-270), and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58) added a range of grant programs to SDWA. These programs focus on addressing small system compliance, improving small system operational sustainability and resilience to natural hazards, and deploying advanced drinking water technologies at certain systems. Further, IIJA’s emergency supplemental appropriations for drinking water infrastructure projects may assist those systems that receive assistance to afford projects necessary to comply with new or revised drinking water regulations.
Aside from SDWA requirements and programs, water systems may voluntarily participate in partnerships to address compliance capacity issues. Such partnerships can range from informal arrangements (e.g., joint bulk purchase of chemicals) to more formal cooperation (e.g., management assistance agreements or physical consolidation).
SDWA compliance continues to challenge water systems. Small water systems comprise the majority of water systems that regularly serve individuals, and have comprised the majority of systems reporting a health-based violation of a drinking water regulation. As such, congressional and stakeholder attention may continue to focus on developing small water system capacity to comply with drinking water regulations, plan for and manage potential events that may disrupt water service, and finance repairs and rehabilitation of infrastructure.
Cutting to the chase...
Concluding Observations
Water system compliance, particularly for smaller systems, has been a Cfocus of SDWA implementation since at least 1996, with several acts amending SDWA to assist with improving the technical, managerial, and financial capacity of such systems. The 1996 SDWA amendments included provisions intended to assist such systems, such as authorizing capacity development and technical assistance, and authorizing limited enforcement relief under certain circumstances. The 1996 amendments also established the DWSRF program, the key federal financial assistance program for drinking water infrastructure projects, and provides assistance with water system financial capacity.
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