EPA RELEASES OVERVIEW OF AMERICA'S DRINKING WATER

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today is releasing its first annual national assessment of drinking water system compliance. Based on information provided by the states, the report shows that 86 percent of all Americans are served by water systems with no reported violations of health standards and that most violations of those standards occurred in the very smallest systems, based on l996 data, the most recently available. The report also describes the many steps the Clinton Administration is taking to improve the safety of the nation's drinking water.

After proposing major revisions to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act, President Clinton signed, in August l996, new amendments to the law. In addition to significant new provisions to improve America's drinking water safety, the new law provides, for the first time ever, billions of dollars in loans to help drinking water suppliers upgrade their systems. In addition, for the first time, the amendments include a number of strong public right-to-know provisions to ensure that the American public is informed about the safety of their local drinking water, including the annual report first being released today.

In the two years following the l996 amendments, EPA reports significant progress in implementing many of the new provisions. The l996 compliance data in the report measure compliance during the period before the amendments were effective.

Among the l996 compliance report's major findings, 91 percent of community water systems, serving approximately 213 million people or 86 percent of the population, had no reported violations of health-based standards, known as maximum contaminant levels, or of treatment techniques for treating certain contaminants. Most problems occurred in small systems: 82 percent of systems with health-based violations were small community water systems that serve a small number of people. Of the large community water systems, which serve the majority of the nation's population, nine percent violated health or treatment technique standards. Nationwide, 87 percent of all violations were for significant monitoring and reporting requirements, not for health-based standards. Failure by public water systems to monitor is an important violation because it can mask public health problems. The report also contains data provided by each individual state on its compliance.

Reliable data are critical to measure progress against the nation's drinking water goals. The l996 Amendments recognized the need for better data in l999. EPA, along with its state and local partners, is initiating several steps to improve the quality of drinking water data to ensure that it will be of higher quality and increased reliability in the future.

Today's report also highlights a number of accomplishments of the last two years under the l996 amendments, which will, in turn, increase compliance in the future:

Consumer Confidence Reports: Public right-to-know is central to the Safe Drinking Water Act and in August l998, EPA began requiring drinking water systems to provide annual reports to their customers beginning in October 1999 on the quality of their local drinking water supply.

New Funding: Under one of the most significant provisions of the new amendments, a new loan fund provides funding, for the first time, to enable states to help water systems upgrade their infrastructure to help solve compliance and public health problems. Congress has appropriated $2 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund through September 1998 and all states are on track to receive funds.

Small Systems: Compliance with public health standards is especially challenging for smaller water systems that serve less than 10,000 people, because of their size and limited resources. EPA recently published guidance and information to help states create a program to ensure that small water systems have the technical, financial, and managerial capacity to provide water that meets federal health standards. Additionally, EPA published a list of compliance technologies for small systems, giving them more flexibility in choosing the most cost-effective way to comply. EPA will soon require certification for operators of small systems.

Enforcement and Compliance Assistance: The l996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act provide stronger enforcement and penalty authorities. EPA continues to ensure that public health is protected through compliance monitoring, enforcement, and compliance assistance. EPA issued over 1,300 notices of violation, issued over 600 administrative compliance orders, and issued over 50 administrative penalty complaints in fiscal years l996 and l997. EPA also will provide compliance assistance through the Local Government Environmental Assistance Network, which will open later this year and will assist local government officials in complying with environmental requirements.

Pollution Prevention/Source Waters: The new amendments require states to assess and protect underground and surface water (rivers and lakes) sources of drinking water, in order to prevent contamination of drinking water sources prior to disinfection and treatment. EPA has developed and is working with states which will submit their source water assessment programs for EPA approval in February 1999. In addition, EPA continues to work with states to better protect surface waters from contaminating runoff.

The report recommends that EPA continue efforts to address violations of health standards, treatment techniques and significant monitoring and reporting requirements, using compliance assistance, compliance monitoring and enforcement. In addition, the report recommends EPA and the states work cooperatively to improve the quality of compliance data. The agency already is acting on those recommendations.

Between the new information on national compliance with drinking water standards and the many new tools provided under the new Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments, Americans will continue to have better drinking water and better knowledge of its quality.

Today's report, entitled "Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: 1996 National Public Water System Annual Compliance Report and Update on Implementation of the l996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments," is available by calling EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791
or on the Internet at: www.epa.gov/safewater or
at epa.gov/oeca
EPA's report contains a summary of each state report, which indicates where each full state report can be obtained.