Title: The Safe Drinking Water Act History, Economics, and Future Directions
1The Safe Drinking Water Act History, Economics,
and Future Directions
- Ed Brands
- Department of Geography, The University of Iowa
Cooperative State Research, Education, and
Extension Service
Grant 2001-51130-11373
2Main Points
- Problem pollutants (e.g. nitrate)
- How can we better characterize specific
pollutants? - Costs of Compliance (monitoring, treatment, etc.)
are rising - What happens if treating water is too expensive
or treatment capacity is exceeded? - Can all existing PWSs keep up with requirements?
- Major infrastructure investment needs
- Can all existing PWSs (and their communities)
afford updates/repairs?
3SDWA Structure
PWSs
SDWA Statute (purpose, goals)
EPA (rules, MCLs, enforcement, oversight,
guidance)
Consumers
States, tribes, territories (may act in place of
EPA Primacy)
4SDWA Definitions
- Contaminant
- Any substance or matter that is not H2O, and that
may cause adverse health or other undesirable
effects - Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL)
- Maximum allowable concentration of a contaminant
in water delivered through a PWS - Primary Contaminants
- Pose health risks
Source SDWA 1401, 1412
5Definitions, Cont.
- Public Water System (PWS)
- System that supplies water for human
consumption must have at least fifteen
connections or serve at least 25 individuals - 170,000 in the U.S., 2,030 in Iowa
- Community Water System (CWS)
- Publicly and privately owned municipal water
supplies that serve residents of the area on a
year-round basis 54,000 in the U.S., 1,200 in
Iowa
Sources SDWA 1401, US EPA (1999a), IDNR (2001)
6Distribution of CWSs (by Size) in the U.S. and
Iowa
Sources US EPA and IDNR
7History of Public Water Systems
- First PWSs constructed in the early1800s
- Most PWSs constructed prior to 1960s, many with
the aid of federal grant - Federal grants replaced by revolving loans, local
bonds, or increased water rates - Systems not designed to deal with NPS pollution
(e.g. nutrients and pesticides)
Picture courtesy of fairmountwaterworks.org
8Des Moines Water Works Treatment Process
http//www.dmww.com/empact_treatment_process.asp
9Des Moines Water Works Treatment Process
Operating Cost 3,000 per day
http//www.dmww.com/empact_treatment_process.asp
10The Replacement Era
Rusty, leaky, localities deal with old water
systems Sunday March 23, 2003By MICHAEL
HILLAssociated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)
Leaky, rusty, busted or old, lines bringing
drinking water to many New Yorkers have seen
better days. New York City relies on an aqueduct
constructed when Woodrow Wilson was president.
Across the state, Buffalo uses a 150-year-old
cast iron distribution pipe. Communities in
between suffer with water distribution systems
that are cobbled, clogged or contaminated. Local
officials, with little money to tackle these
costly problems, are replacing pipes on a
piecemeal basis or borrowing money for
large-scale upgrades.
11Iowa City Water Plant 49 Million
9/15/2002
12Drinking Water Contaminants Regulated by the US
PHS and the US EPA
Sources Taras (1981), US EPA (1999a)
13SDWA Monitoring
- Each year, millions of spent on monitoring
- Data informs
- Infrastructure improvement/replacement
- Treatment/blending decisions
- Compliance determination
- Consumers about water quality
- Much of the spent on monitoring has resulted in
non-detections (73 ND from 1988-1995 in Iowa) - Monitoring requirements fail to address
temporally variable contaminants (i.e. nutrients
and pesticides)
14Monitoring Requirements, Recent Developments
- 1996 SDWA amendments monitoring relief
- Opportunity for PWSs to apply for, and states to
grant waivers (SDWA 1418) - 2002 EPA Alternative Monitoring Guidelines
- How to apply for waivers
15Average Annual Household Cost for Monitoring and
Compliance by System Size (for Systems With One
Treatment)
Source Congressional Budget Office (1995, 1997)
16Arsenic Standard Implications
Arsenic Concentration by County
91 of the systems that will be affected by the
new arsenic standard are small (serve fewer than
3,300 individuals)
Water World estimates an annual cost of 200
million for corrective action required to meet
new arsenic standard
17Future Directions
- Adapt monitoring to specific places?
- Given what is known about contaminant occurrence
patterns
18Targeted Monitoring
- Water quality studies and monitoring throughout
the US have clearly shown that occurrence and/or
concentration for some contaminants may vary over
timeTargeting monitoring to vulnerable times can
improve the effectiveness of compliance
monitoring and the accuracy of exposure
estimates. -
--US EPA, A Review of Contaminant Occurrence in
Public Water Systems (1999b, 73)
19Future Directions
- Adapt monitoring to specific places and times?
- Given what is known about contaminant occurrence
patterns - Other options for drinking water?
- Given the needs of some communities, especially
small communities
20Options for Drinking Water Supply and Protection
- Point of Use/Point of Entry
(US EPA 1998, NRC 1997, Tobin and
Rajagopal 1990)
Bottled Water (Barzilay 1999, NRDC 1999)
21Cost Comparison (Very Small Systems)
Source Midpoint estimates from U.S. EPA, 2000.
22Options for Drinking Water Supply and Protection
Water Source Protection
(Keck 2000, Burby et al. 1983)
23Future Directions
- Adapt monitoring to specific places?
- Given what is known about contaminant occurrence
patterns - Other options for drinking water?
- Given the needs of some communities, especially
small communities
- Integration of SDWA goals/programs with CWA and
- other goals/programs
?
24References
- Barzilay, J. I. 1999. The Water We Drink. New
Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Press, 180 p.
- Burby, R.J., Kaiser, E.J., Miller, T.L., Moreau,
D.H. 1983. Drinking Water Supplies Protection
Through Watershed Management. Ann Arbor Ann
Arbor Science Publishers. - Iowa Department of Natural Resources. 2001.
Public Drinking Water Program 2000 Annual
Compliance Report. Environmental Protection
Division, Water Quality Bureau, Drinking Water
Supply Section. Available online at
http//www.state.ia.us/dnr/organiza/epd/wtrsuply/r
eport/report.htm - Keck, J.C. 2000. Public Water Supply Protection
An Evaluation of Treatment Plant and Watershed
Management Approaches. Unpublished Ph.D.
Dissertation. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, The University of
Iowa, Iowa City, IA. - National Research Council. 1997b. Safe Water From
Every Tap Improving Water Service to Small
Communities. Washington, D.C. National Academy
Press. - Natural Resources Defense Council. 1999. Bottled
Water Pure Drink or Pure Hype? Available online
at http//www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.as
p - Public Health Service Act (Safe Drinking Water
Act, as amended). 42 U.S.C. 300f-300j-9. - Ryker, S.J. 2001. Mapping arsenic in
groundwater. Geotimes. 46(11) 34-36. Figure 2
available online at http//co.water.usgs.gov/trac
e/pubs/geo_v46n11/fig2.html - Taras, M.J. 1981. Taste, Odor, and Organics
Treatment. In M.J. Taras, ed. The Quest for
Pure Water. 2nd ed. Volume II. American Water
Works Association, p. 139-150. - Tobin, G., Rajagopal, R. 1990, The Point-of-Use
Water Treatment Industry Expert Opinion on
Regulation. The Environmental Professional. 12
298-304. US CBO. 1995. The Safe Drinking Water
Act A Case Study of an Unfunded Federal Mandate.
Washington, D.C. Congressional Budget Office. - US CBO. 1997. Federalism and Environmental
Protection Case Studies for Drinking Water and
Ground-Level Ozone. Washington, D.C.
Congressional Budget Office. - US EPA. 1998. Cost Evaluation of Small System
Compliance Options Point-of-Use and
Point-of-Entry Treatment Units. Available online
at http//www.asdwa.org/docs/pdf/POU20POE20Repo
rt201998.pdf. - US EPA (1999a) 25 Years of the Safe Drinking
Water Act History and Trends. Available online
at http//www.epa.gov/safewater/sdwa/trends.html.
- US EPA (1999b) A Review of Contaminant Occurrence
in Public Water Systems. EPA Office of Water EPA
816-R-99-006. Available online at
www.epa.gov/safewater/occur/nov99_lo.pdf. - US EPA 2000. Arsenic in Drinking Water Rule
Economic Analysis. Office of Ground Water and
Drinking Water. EPA 815-R-00-026. Available
online at http//www.epa.gov/safewater/ars/econ_a
nalysis.pdf.