Abstract |
The United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is directed by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to annually report on public water system (PWS) compliance in the United States. To meet this requirement, EPAs Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) publishes the annual National Public Water Systems Compliance Report (Report) summarizing the incidence of significant violations, which include all health-based violations and a subset of other violations, as shown in Table A-1. The Report for 2011 documents that, while the majority of the U.S. population served by PWSs receives safe drinking water, many PWSs incurred significant violations of federal drinking water quality standards. The number of PWSs with significant violations decreased from 39,716 in 2010 to 37,631 in 2011. In December 2011, there were 151,739 active PWSs in the U.S. serving over 318 million users. Small PWSs comprise the vast majority of all these systems. Noncompliance occurs more frequently at smaller PWSs because they often have fewer resources to operate and maintain compliance. For this reason, EPA, states, and other organizations provide significant resources to small PWSs to build their capacity to properly finance, operate, and maintain their drinking water systems. Among other mechanisms to support small PWSs, EPA provides funds through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) program for third-party technical assistance providers, and maintains multiple, free online financial and technical websites, tools and resources. |