Safe Drinking Water Act

test. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the principal federal law in the United States intended to ensure safe drinking water for the public. Pursuant to the act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to set standards for drinking water quality and oversee all states, localities, and water suppliers who implement these standards.

SDWA applies to every public water system in the United States. A public water system has at least 15 service connections or regularly serves at least 25 individuals, at least 60 days per year. There are currently more than 150,000 public water systems providing water to almost all Americans at some time in their lives. These water systems must be analyzed by third-party analytical laboratories. The Act does not cover private wells.

The SDWA does not apply to bottled water. Bottled water is regulated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

National Primary Drinking Water Regulations
The SDWA requires EPA to establish National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs) for contaminants that may cause adverse public health effects.

The regulations include both mandatory levels (Maximum Contaminant Levels, or MCLs) and nonenforceable health goals (Maximum Contaminant Level Goals, or MCLGs) for each included contaminant. MCLs have additional significance because they can be used under the Superfund law as "Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements" in cleanups of contaminated sites on the National Priorities List.

Future NPDWR standards will apply to non-transient non-community water systems because of concern for the long-term exposure of a stable population. It is important to note that EPA's decision to apply future NPDWRs to non-transient non-community water systems may have a significant impact on United States Department of Energy facilities that operate their own drinking water systems.

"Lead Free" plumbing requirements
The 1986 amendments require EPA to set standards limiting the concentration of lead in public water systems, and defines "lead free" pipes as:
 * (1) solders and flux containing not more than 0.2 percent lead;
 * (2) pipe pipes and pipe fittings containing not more than 8.0 percent lead; and
 * (3) plumbing fittings and fixtures as defined in industry-developed voluntary standards (issued no later than August 6, 1997), or standards developed by EPA in lieu of voluntary standards.

EPA issued an initial lead and copper regulation in 1991.

Airline water supplies
In 2004, EPA tested drinking water quality on commercial aviation|commercial aircraft and found that 15 percent of tested aircraft water systems tested positive for total coliform bacteria. EPA published a final regulation for aircraft public water systems in 2009. The regulation requires airline operating in the U.S. to conduct coliform sampling, management practices, corrective action, public notification, operator training, and reporting and recordkeeping. An airline with a non-complying aircraft must restrict public access to the on-board water system for a specified period.

Unregulated contaminants
The SDWA requires EPA to identify and list unregulated contaminants which may require regulation. The Agency must periodically publish this list, called the "Contaminant Candidate List," and decide whether to regulate at least five or more listed contaminants. EPA uses this list to prioritize research and data collection efforts, which support the regulatory determination process.

Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program
The 1974 act authorized EPA to regulate injection wells in order to protect underground sources of drinking water. Congress amended the SDWA in 2005 to exclude hydraulic fracturing, an industrial process for recovering petroleum and natural gas, from coverage under the UIC program. This exclusion has been called the "Halliburton Loophole" after the company formerly led by former vice-president Richard Cheney. Halliburton is the world's largest provider of hydraulic fracturing services.

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (H.R. 2766, S. 1215) would have repealed the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the SDWA and regulated the oil and natural gas recovery process under the UIC program. The bill did not pass. See "proposed amendments" below for details.

Whistleblower protection
The SDWA includes a whistleblower protection provision. Employees in the US who believe they were fired or suffered another adverse action related to enforcement of this law have 30 days to file a written complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Prelude
Prior to the SDWA there were few national enforceable requirements for drinking water. Improvements in testing were allowing the detection of smaller concentrations of contaminant and allowing more tests to be run. Many states had drinking water regulations prior to adoption of the federal SDWA.

1974 Act
The Safe Drinking Water Act was one of several pieces of environmental legislation in the 1970s. Discovery of organic contamination in public drinking water and the lack of enforceable, national standards persuaded United States Congress to take action.

1986 amendments
The 1986 SDWA amendments required EPA to apply future NPDWRs to both community and non-transient non-community water systems when it evaluated and revised current regulations. The first case in which this was applied was the "Phase I" final rule, published on July 8, 1987. At that time NPDWRs were promulgated for certain chemical synthetic volatile organic compounds and applied to non-transient non-community water systems as well as community water systems. This rulemaking also clarified that non-transient non-community water systems were not subject to MCLs that were promulgated before July 8, 1987. The 1986 amendments were signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on June 19, 1986.

In addition to requiring more contaminants to be regulated, the 1986 amendments included:
 * Well head protection
 * New monitoring for certain substances
 * Filtration for certain surface water systems
 * Disinfection for certain groundwater systems
 * Restriction on lead in solder and plumbing
 * More enforcement powers.

1996 SDWA amendments
In 1996, Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to emphasize sound science and risk-based standard setting, small water supply system flexibility and technical assistance, community-empowered source water assessment and protection, public right-to-know, and water system infrastructure assistance through a multi-billion-dollar state revolving loan fund. The amendments were signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 6, 1996.

Main points of the 1996 amendments

 * 1) Consumer Confidence Reports: All community water systems must prepare and distribute annual reports about the water they provide, including information on detected contaminants, possible health effects, and the water's source.
 * 2) Cost-benefit analysis: EPA must conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis for every new standard to determine whether the benefits of a drinking water standard justify the costs.
 * 3) Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. States can use this fund to help water systems make infrastructure or management improvements or to help systems assess and protect their source water.
 * 4) Microbial Contaminants and Disinfection Byproducts: EPA is required to strengthen protection for microbial contaminants, including cryptosporidium, while strengthening control over the byproducts of chemical disinfection. EPA promulgated the Stage 1 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule and the Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule to address these risks.
 * 5) Operator Certification: Water system operators must be certified to ensure that systems are operated safely. EPA issued guidelines in 1999 specifying minimum standards for the certification and recertification of the operators of community and non-transient, noncommunity water systems. These guidelines apply to state operator certification programs. All states are currently implementing EPA-approved operator certification programs.
 * 6) Public Information and Consultation: SDWA emphasizes that consumers have a right to know what is in their drinking water, where it comes from, how it is treated, and how to help protect it. EPA distributes public information materials (through its Drinking Water Hotline, Safewater web site, and Resource Center) and holds public meetings, working with states, tribes, water systems, and environmental and civic groups, to encourage public involvement.
 * 7) Small Water Systems: Small water systems are given special consideration and resources under SDWA, to make sure they have the managerial, financial, and technical ability to comply with drinking water standards.

Proposed amendments
Controversy surrounds the practice of hydraulic fracturing as a threat to drinking water supplies. The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (H.R. 2766, S. 1215), dubbed the "FRAC Act," was introduced to both houses of the 111th Congress on June 9, 2009. The bill would have repealed the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the SDWA and regulated the oil and natural gas recovery process under the UIC program. It would have required the energy industry to disclose the chemicals it mixes with the water and sand it pumps underground in the process (also known as "fracking"), information that has largely been protected as proprietary or trade secrets. Without knowing the identity of the proprietary components, regulators cannot test for their presence. This prevents government regulators from establishing baseline levels of the substances prior to hydraulic fracturing and documenting changes in these levels, thereby making it impossible to determine whether hydraulic fracturing is contaminating the environment with these substances. The natural gas industry opposed the legislation. The House bill was introduced by representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jared Polis(D-CO). The Senate version was introduced by senators Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). After a delay, the FRAC Act was re-introduced in both houses of the 112th United States Congress. In the Senate, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced S. 587 on March 15, 2011. In the House, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) introduced H.R. 1084 on March 24, 2011.

As of May 2012, Congress had not yet passed either of The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act bills

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Clean Air Act
 * Clean Water Restoration Act
 * Hunton & Williams
 * Mountaintop removal
 * U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
 * Water Policy Institute
 * Water wars
 * United States and fracking
 * FRAC Act of 2009

External resources

 * Text of the Clean Water Act (pdf)
 * Summary of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act), on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website
 * "Introduction to the Clean Water Act," from the EPA's Watershed Academy
 * "Clean Water Act" on Wikipedia.org

External articles

 * U.S. Department of Justice, "Smithfield Foods Fined $12.6 Million in Largest Clean Water Act Fine Ever," News Release, August 1997.
 * U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Against Smithfield Foods for Polluting Virginia River," News Release, September 1999.
 * "EPA, Army Corps Issue Joint Guidance to Sustain Wetlands Protection under Supreme Court Decision," Media Newswire, June 5, 2007.
 * "Administration Falls Short in Protecting Wetlands: Congress Must Act. Statement of Bob Perciasepe, Audubon Chief Operating Officer,"PRNewswire-USNewswire, June 5, 2007.
 * Lisa Lambert, "U.S. adopts limits on clean water law enforcement," Reuters, June 5, 2007.
 * Josef Hebert, "EPA Makes It Harder to Protect Wetlands," Associated Press (Washington Post), June 5, 2007.