Report: EPA must do more to ensure safe water

More than three-quarters of small community water systems across the nation with the most serious health-related violations of federal safe drinking-water regulations still were violating those rules three years later, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to do more to ensure that the small community systems, which serve more than 24 million people, stay in compliance, said the report from the EPA's Office of Inspector General.

“All of the report’s recommendations are resolved,” EPA spokeswoman Monica Lee said in a statement. “The IG’s recommendations will be added to our ongoing efforts to address noncompliance of small drinking-water systems nationally. Each EPA office has outlined its plan of action.”

The report comes a few days after a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation focused on lead contamination in public water systems and found nearly 2,000 systems across the USA with excessive lead levels from 2012 through 2015. The systems reporting lead levels above EPA standards supply water to about 6 million people.

About 48% of the systems in the analysis meet the inspector general report's description of small community water systems, serving 3,300 people or fewer.

The report looked at violations overall, not just those involving lead. Drinking-water contaminants also included bacteria, nitrates, arsenic and copper, all of which present potentially serious health risks if people ingest excessive levels in water.

“Without assurance that necessary enforcement action has been taken, human health risks may continue at these small community water systems,” the report said.

Nationally, EPA classified 2,252 small community water systems as serious violators in October 2011, including 193 systems with the most serious problems, according to the report. Top-tierviolations require that the public be notified within 24 hours of a water system discovering them, and examples include, among others, exceeding standards for fecal coliform or nitrate.

Out of those 193 systems with the most serious violations, only 43, or 22%, were back in compliance within three years — meaning 78% were not.

Almost half of the 193 most serious violators were in Kansas, Texas and Puerto Rico, so the inspector general focused on them in the report. Of those 84 systems, 86% remained out of compliance as of April 2015.

The report points out that small water systems violate safe drinking-water standards more often than large ones and are less likely “to have the technical capacity required to properly monitor their water for contaminants, make timely repairs or replace faulty materials."

“This can lead to poor water quality, water system unreliability or failing water system infrastructure, all of which can pose significant public health risks to customers,” the report said, adding that limited resources mean owners “may not have the managerial expertise to ensure the safe and reliable delivery of drinking water.”

In Kansas, the inspector general pointed to technical and financial challenges in explaining why 12 of 17 small community water systems designated as serious violators in October 2011 hadn’t returned to compliance as of April. It said neither the regional EPA office or the Kansas Department of Health and Environment followed the enforcement policy for the systems in the sample.

Partly because of that, “serious noncompliance and the associated human health risks have persisted at one system for more than 20 years,” according to the report.

In Texas, which had the most serious violators with top-tier problems of any state or territory, the report concluded that EPA and state efforts are helping some move toward compliance. Despite obstacles such as drought, the remoteness of some water system locations, and financial challenges, communication among the EPA, state environmental officials and system operators has helped violators get back on track, the report said.

In Arizona, just three of 12 water utilities that received violations in 2011 had resolved the problem by April. The 12 systems serve almost 5,000 people, according to the report.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Qualitydid not have the names of the providers , as staff had just seen the report and said they needed time to review it before commenting. A spokeswoman for the regional EPA office that oversees Arizona said she was working on answering questions from  The Republic. 

EPA's Lee said the agency formed a work group last year to address drinking-water system compliance, which focuses on best practices.

In response to a draft of the inspector general's report earlier this year, a letter from EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance noted that EPA faced “a daunting list of challenges” in its continuing efforts, particularly with small systems that “lack the basic infrastructure, resources and capacity to provide clean drinking water.”

But officials said the agency has been targeting systems with serious violations since 2010 and has reduced the number of those systems by 75%.

“The IG’s report acknowledges the work EPA has done to improve drinking-water compliance in the United States,” Lee said.  “EPA’s Drinking Water Enforcement Response Policy has made important progress in identifying non-compliance issues that pose a serious risk to public health and to ensure that violations are corrected in a timely fashion.”

Laura Ungar and Mark Nichols | SOURCE:  USA TODAY

To download the report and other information regarding the study visit the EPA's Site 

Taxonomy

• Public Health
• Water Quality Monitoring