For hundreds of years our forefathers drank straight from the fertile waters of this great land. Clean drinking water spilled forth in abundance across the country and quenched the thirst of our rapidly growing nation.
Ours was a tough and rugged land where people often turned a blind eye to sanitation—often sharing the very water from their canteens with their trusty steeds after a long day in the saddle—untroubled by water borne illness or the large herds of buffalo that roamed the land unhindered by fences or well defined lavatories.
However, as the nation flourished and housing and industrial development began to fill the vast expanses, even the toughest of hombres soon began to realize the importance of a clean glass, and clear water.
In this issue we'll follow the path that led to the formation of the most stringent water quality regulations in the world and take a look at the roads left to be traveled down in the future.
The Wheels of Change Turn with the Help of a Little Greece.
It wasn't until roughly 4000 B.C., when ancient Greek writings show examples of water treatment consisting of crude charcoal filters and straining methods, that civilization began to fully realize the need for water sources that were not only bountiful but clean.
However, it would be many centuries before these methods would make their way across the ocean and to this new land.
After years of dabbling in water treatment regulation, including the Public Service Act of 1912 which first set guidelines for allowable levels of contaminants related to communicable disease such as typhoid, federal oversight of drinking water quality began in earnest in the U.S. following the turn of the 20th century.
While it isn't clear if the switch from horses to the automobile (or the disappearance of those pesky buffalo herds) played any measurable role in this modern era of water quality legislation, it was during this period that the federal government began to take an active role in protecting the quality of the nation's drinking water.
Additional Resources
www.epa.gov/safewater/consumer/hist.pdf [1]
Is the Glass Half-Full?
Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner stated during her tenure that safe tap water is a reality for most Americans. She cautioned though, that officials must remain vigilant and not take water safety for granted.
"You need to be informed. You need to make sure your community is doing everything to protect the river, the lake that becomes your morning cup of coffee."
Protecting our water is an ongoing project that industry leaders and EPA officials say won't end until every American has access to safe drinking water. With much of the nation's infrastructure having been constructed in the decades following the first world war, this will take a great deal of planning and investment we continue to meet this goal.
A New Era in Water Regulations.
A nationwide survey completed in 1969 found that only 60 percent of public water systems in the U.S. were delivering water that met the federal standards, and over half had major deficiencies.
As a result of this, and other studies, Congress took on the issue of drinking water safety early in 1973.
By the end of the following year, Congress had approved new legislation for federal safe drinking water laws and the era of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) had begun.
The SDWA was passed in 1974 and has been amended several times to expand both its breadth and the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to enforce it. It was through these amendments to the original legislation that the bar on our definition of safe drinking water was to be raised.
The SDWA's primary purpose was, and remains today, to stop contaminants from entering our water systems through the following:
Establishment of quality standards for drinking water.
Monitoring of public water systems.
Implementation of safeguards against groundwater contamination.
Additional Resources
www.swbic.org/education/env-engr/sdwa/ [2]
Good, but not Good Enough.
For 12 years, the SDWA seemed sufficient to protect the interest and health of our nation's water loving public. However, as science and technology advanced it became clear that even more contaminants needed to be regulated and greater controls enacted to ensure the highest degree of public safety.
Up to that time the SDWA had only applied standards to 25 drinking water contaminants.
In 1986, Congress passed a series of amendments to the SDWA calling on the EPA to develop regulations for over 80 different contaminants. Those amendments were again updated in 1996, providing the nation with the series of controls and regulations that water system boards now face each day.
Recent surveys indicate that in this modern era of safe drinking water regulations, roughly 95 percent of all Americans now have access to safe drinking water through public water systems. While more still needs to be done, it is a vast improvement over the drinking water situation of just three decades ago.
Additional Resources
www.epa.gov/safewater/mcl.html [3]
Safe Drinking Water Comes at a Price.
The new regulations required increased monitoring and, provided for additional wellhead protection, established maximum contaminant levels, transferred enforcement duties to state primacy agencies, established public notification and disclosure regulations, and more importantly—recognized that small water systems were in need of financial assistance as they strove to meet the new regulations.
The EPA estimates that it costs $24 billion per year for the public water systems across the country to monitor the regulated contaminants. Monitoring and facility improvements for 30 to 35 as-yet-unregulated contaminants in anticipation of future regulations is expected to cost upwards of $89 billion over the next decade.
The 1996 Amendments included $9.6 billion over six years for improving drinking water infrastructure through state revolving loan fund programs. Over the first four years, more than $4.4 billion has already been appropriated.
Through agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program, millions of dollars have been secured to assist rural water systems meet the oncoming flood of new regulations and upgrade and expand their systems in their quest to maintain compliance.
Additional Resources
www.epa.gov/safewaterstandards.html [4]
Rules to Live by.
The EPA has established two categories of drinking water standards to control the level of contaminants in the nation's drinking water as a "multiple barrier" approach to drinking water protection.
The barriers are:
National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR or primary standard): These are legally enforceable standards that apply to all public water systems. Primary standards protect drinking water quality by limiting the levels of specific contaminants that can adversely affect public health and are known to occur in water. These regulations take the form of Maximum Contaminant Levels or Treatment Techniques.
National Secondary Drinking Water Regulation (NSDWR or secondary standards): These are non-enforceable guidelines regarding contaminants that may cause cosmetic or aesthetic effects in drinking water. The EPA recommends secondary standards to water systems but does not require system's to comply.
Drinking water standards generally apply to all public water systems that provide water for human consumption through at least 15 service connections.
Additional Resources
www.drinkingwater.utah.gov/documents/external/national_primary_drinking_water_regulations.htm [5]
http://wilkes1.wilkes.edu/~eqc/secstandards.htm [6]