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From c_daps@dante.lbl.govMon Apr  3 19:15:47 1995
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 21:26:44 -0800
From: Camilla Dunham <c_daps@dante.lbl.gov>
To: Multiple recipients of list <water-on-line@ucdavis.edu>
Subject: Drinking Water (from EPA) (fwd)


FOR RELEASE:  WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 1995
 
          BROWNER ANNOUNCES NEW AGENDA AND PARTNERSHIP
                   TO PROTECT DRINKING WATER
 
 
     EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner today announced a new "Agenda for
Action" to strengthen the safety of the nation's drinking water.  As part of
this Agenda, she also announced a partnership with the nation's drinking water
suppliers to upgrade drinking water quality.
     The "Agenda for Action" is part of a new EPA study entitled "Strengthening
the Safety of Our Drinking Water," which Browner made public today during
remarks before the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, other groups
representing the nation's water suppliers and state drinking water
administrators.
 
     Browner said, "Most households today receive safe, affordable water 24
hours a day, every day, all year around.  And most water systems are meeting
more protective standards than ever before.  But we cannot take the safety of
our drinking water for granted.  More remains to be done."
 
     According to the EPA report, microbial contaminants and their disinfection
are among the greatest near-term challenges to safe drinking water --
particularly those such as cryptosporidium, which may be resistant to
traditional disinfectant methods.
 
     Last year, the report states, some 30 million Americans were served by
drinking water systems that violated one or more public health standards.  Most
of those violations involve standards for microbial contaminants. States report
that over 1000 systems, serving about 13 million people, have not installed
filters that are needed to help protect against water-borne disease.
 
     "All of us recognize that we need more scientific and technological
research to fully understand microbial threats to our health like
cryptosporidium," Browner said. "But we do know that there are steps we can take
today to respond to the immediate needs, even while we look for the long-term
answers. Through today's partnership, we will join together to take those steps,
quickly, responsibly, and aggressively."
 
     Under the new "Partnership for Safe Water," water suppliers will carry out
a comprehensive assessment of their operations, maintenance, and management, and
undertake corrective actions -- short of major construction -- to ensure the
most protective systems possible, particularly against microbial contamination.
In addition, some suppliers also will submit to a third-party assessment that
has been shown effective in improving water system performance.
 
     The Agenda includes five specific actions:
 
     1) provide consumers with more information about their drinking water, so
they can participate in maintaining its quality;
 
     2) target safety standards and resources first at contaminants that pose
the greatest threats to human health, such as microbial contaminants, including
 
cryptosporidium;
 
     3) provide technical assistance to more small systems, communities and
states for greater protection of source waters, better facility operation, and
to prevent other problems;
 
     4) give states more flexibility to address their individual problems and
set program priorities, including monitoring regimes; and
 
     5) increase investment in community drinking water facilities through such
vehicles as a federal loan program.
 
     "These are the common-sense steps we must take if we are to guarantee safe
drinking water for the people of this country, now and in the future," Browner
said. "These steps are consistent with a new, stronger Safe Drinking Water Act,
which the Clinton Administration supported in the last Congress.
 
     "This Administration will work with the new Congress to achieve balanced
reforms to strengthen the Act," Browner said. "But we must also act now to
provide the protection that will give the American people the safe drinking
water they have come to expect."
 
     The Agenda for Action and the new partnership represent an important step
in the Clinton Administration's program to reinvent environmental regulation.
Browner said, "Two weeks ago, President Clinton, Vice President Gore and I
announced a dramatic overhaul of environmental regulation.  A new common-sense
approach to strengthening safe drinking water is a top priority of that
reinvention."
 
     National partners include EPA, the Association of Metropolitan Water
Agencies, the American Water Works Association, the National Association of
Water Companies, the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, and the
American Water Works Association Research Foundation.
 
R-63                          # # #