On July 28, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change held a hearing titled, There’s Something in the Water: Reforming our Nations Drinking Water Standards, to evaluate the need to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulatory process.
In his opening remarks, U.S. Rep Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, stated that “there are fundamental weaknesses in both the design and the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act that leave us all at risk.” He then, further described what he termed several weaknesses, including the fact that the Safe Drinking Water Act is not currently designed to produce health-based standards and that it very much should be.
Shellie Chard, Water Quality Division Director at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and speaking on behalf of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), provided testimony during the hearing explaining six specific needs ASDWA sees as necessary:
- U.S. EPA must set standards in a reasonable timeframe, using sound science and in collaboration with the states.
- U.S. EPA must consider the availability of and help develop, appropriate test methods, laboratory capacity, treatment technologies, and capacity of the federal and state data systems.
- U.S. EPA must consider the differences in water system characteristics based on geography, population served, affordability, and source water.
- U.S. EPA must be clear in its regulatory framework.
- U.S. EPA must consider the need for workforce training and assist the sector in achieving a sustainable workforce.
- More funding is needed for Public Water Supply Supervision (PWSS) and EPA programs.
Chard said, in her testimony, that “while establishing MCLs [maximum contaminant levels] is the goal of the SDWA standard setting process, it is useless unless there are appropriate analytical test methods and laboratory capacity to conduct the analysis.” She later added that “one size does not fit all in terms of water sources, population served, geographic separation, local economic conditions, and other factors” that should be considered when setting regulations.
While many subcommittee members echoed Chair Pallone’s and Chard’s concerns, others fear revising the language and promulgating new regulations may lead to costly or unaffordable implementation costs.
Diane VanDe Hei, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), and Mae Wu, Senior Director, Health and Food, Healthy People and Thriving Communities Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) also served as witnesses at the hearing and provided testimony.
Contributions from Michael Bradley, WEF Intern
