The Safe Drinking Water Act History, Economics, and Future Directions

1
The 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
2
Main 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?

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SDWA Structure
PWSs
SDWA Statute (purpose, goals)
EPA (rules, MCLs, enforcement, oversight,
guidance)
Consumers
States, tribes, territories (may act in place of
EPA Primacy)
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SDWA 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
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Definitions, 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)
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Distribution of CWSs (by Size) in the U.S. and
Iowa
Sources US EPA and IDNR
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History 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
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Des Moines Water Works Treatment Process
http//www.dmww.com/empact_treatment_process.asp
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Des Moines Water Works Treatment Process
Operating Cost 3,000 per day
http//www.dmww.com/empact_treatment_process.asp
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The 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.
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Iowa City Water Plant 49 Million
9/15/2002
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Drinking Water Contaminants Regulated by the US
PHS and the US EPA
Sources Taras (1981), US EPA (1999a)
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SDWA 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)

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Monitoring 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

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Average Annual Household Cost for Monitoring and
Compliance by System Size (for Systems With One
Treatment)
Source Congressional Budget Office (1995, 1997)
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Arsenic 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
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Future Directions

• Adapt monitoring to specific places?
• Given what is known about contaminant occurrence
  patterns

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Targeted 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)
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Future 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

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Options 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)
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Cost Comparison (Very Small Systems)
Source Midpoint estimates from U.S. EPA, 2000.
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Options for Drinking Water Supply and Protection
Water Source Protection
(Keck 2000, Burby et al. 1983)
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Future 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

?
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References

• 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.