On Aug. 13, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released what it’s calling an important guidance document for state partners that are working to ensure public water systems are meeting drinking water standards.
EPA said the guidance is meant to encourage proactive steps to strengthen drinking water systems while supporting the role of states as co-regulators under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
“Public Water Systems provide essential clean and safe drinking water that their residents, schools, hospitals, businesses, commercial centers, and industry rely on,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer. “EPA must work seamlessly with state co-regulators to ensure drinking water is meeting federal standards, and today we are helping our states assess water systems and protect drinking water with this new checklist.”
EPA has developed this guidance document to help state agencies identify, track and address systemic issues. Systemic issues are problems that could eventually lead to a disruption of water services if a failure were to occur. These challenges could include demand in source water nearing capacity, malfunctioning treatment equipment, or frequent water main breaks. Often systemic issues like these can be identified during routine public water system assessments and resolved before drinking water is jeopardized.
Anthony DeRosa, executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), also commented in support of the release of the guidance.
“Communities across the U.S. deserve access to safe, reliable, and high-quality drinking water,” said DeRosa. “With that commitment in mind, ASDWA supports the release of the Systemic Issues Checklist – developed in partnership with states and EPA – as a practical resource that will help drinking water primacy agencies and public water systems identify and address challenges before they become risks to service reliability or public health.”
“State primacy agencies have long recognized the value of proactive system management, and this guidance provides an effective framework to bolster sanitary survey programs, strengthen system resilience, and promote continuous improvement across drinking water utilities of all sizes,” DeRosa added. “We appreciate EPA’s continued partnership with states in advancing our shared mission of ensuring that every community has access to safe, reliable drinking water while strengthening the long-term resilience of our nation’s water systems.”
EPA encourages state agencies to track and resolve issues identified during these routine assessments – known as sanitary surveys – to ensure that issues and concerns do not become systemic or meaningfully endanger public health. The agency’s voluntary guidance provides a series of useful checklists that state agencies may use to identify and document systemic issues at public water systems.
The checklists are designed to supplement a state agency’s existing sanitary survey program so as not to create new processes or additional burden. Additionally, this document provides recommendations for long-term resolution of systemic issues.
The Systemic Issues Checklist is available on the EPA’s sanitary survey page as well as on the EPA’s SDWA capacity development state resources webpage.
Source/s: U.S. EPA
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