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IB91041 - Safe Drinking Water Act: Implementing the 1986 Amendments
3-Dec-1996; Mary Tiemann; 13 p.
Abstract: Congress passed the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), P.L. 93-523, to protect public drinking water supplies from harmful contaminants. The Act, as amended, is administered through regulatory programs that establish standards and treatment requirements for drinking water, control underground injection of wastes that might contaminate water supplies, and protect groundwater. Authorizations for appropriations under this law expired in FY1991; however, funding continued through annual appropriations laws. In 1986, extensive amendments to the Act strengthened standard-setting procedures, enforcement authority, and groundwater protection provisions. A major mandate for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was to issue drinking water regulations for 83 specified contaminants by 1989 and for 25 additional contaminants every 3 years thereafter. The 1986 Amendments also required that all public water systems using surface water disinfect, and possibly filter, water supplies. Thus far, EPA has regulated 84 contaminants. In recent years, issues emerging with implementation of the law have prompted congressional interest in revising the statute again. A key issue has involved the increase in state and local mandates without a parallel increase in federal support. A second issue has involved the ability of public water systems to meet new treatment, monitoring, and reporting requirements; small system compliance has been of particular concern. Most serious violations of drinking water regulations have occurred in small water systems serving fewer than 3,300, which often have limited financial and technical resources to devote to water monitoring and treatment. Because 87% of community water systems are small, improving small system compliance capacity has been a key reauthorization issue. Other issues have involved how to balance risks and costs in setting standards, how and whether to discourage the formation of new systems that are unlikely to comply, what the proper state and federal roles are, and whether and how to increase Act's focus on pollution prevention. The Senate unanimously passed a SDWA reauthorization bill, S. 1316, on November 29, 1995. The House passed H.R. 3604 by voice vote on June 25, 1996. On August 2, the House and Senate agreed to the conference report on the SDWA Amendments of 1996 (H.Rept 104-741); on August 6 the President signed the bill (P.L. 104-182). Among other provisions, the law authorizes a state revolving loan fund (SRF) program to finance projects needed for SDWA compliance, requires EPA to conduct cost-benefit analyses and to consider overall risk reduction when setting standards, increases compliance and monitoring flexibility for states and public water systems, and encourages source water protection. EPA's FY1997 funding bill (P.L. 104-204, H.R. 3666) provides $1.275 billion for capitalization grants for drinking water SRFs. The omnibus appropriations act for FY1997 (P.L. 104-208, H.R. 3610) gives EPA an additional $30 million to implement the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996. [read report]
Topics: Water
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