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95-1110 - Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1995: Overview of S. 1316, as Passed
18-Dec-1995; Mary Tiemann; 6 p.
Abstract: On November 29, 1995, the Senate passed S. 1316, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1995, unanimously. The 1974 Act was last reauthorized in 1986. Both the House and Senate passed SDWA bills by wide margins in the past Congress, and strong interest in reauthorizing the Act continues in the 104th Congress. Many of the issues discussed in the SDWA debate, while specific to the Act, are of concern in the broader regulatory reform debate on unfunded Federal mandates and cost-benefit and risk analyses. Compliance with the increasing regulations under the 1986 amendments is proving difficult for States and public water systems, and the Act has become a popular target of complaints about unfunded mandates. Many believe the law gives States too little flexibility in implementing Federal requirements. Also, the Act is widely viewed as giving EPA insufficient flexibility to balance risk reduction benefits and costs when setting standards. Broad agreement also exists that the standard setting schedule mandated in 1986 is unrealistic and hampers EPA's ability to focus limited resources on regulating contaminants of greatest concern. To address these and other issues, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced S. 1316 on October 12, 1995. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings on October 19, and reported S. 1316 on October 24 (S. Rept. 104-169). The bill authorizes grants for State loan funds to help communities comply with Federal drinking water mandates, allows EPA to consider overall risk reduction when setting standards, directs EPA to conduct benefit-cost analyses for new regulations, authorizes States to modify certain monitoring requirements, and establishes a voluntary source water protection program. To help small systems, S. 1316 increases States authority to grant conditional variances from SDWA standards, and establishes programs for technical assistance and capacity development. The bill would authorize appropriations through FY2003. This report briefly outlines selected provisions of S. 1316, as passed by the Senate. [read report]
Topics: Water
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