The Safe Drinking
Water Act
One Year Later -
Success in Advancing Public Health Protection
Dear Friends:
On August 6, 1996, President Clinton signed the amendments to the Safe
Drinking Water Act, the primary statute for protecting our nation's public
drinking water supply. I am pleased to provide you with the attached report,
which describes how EPA and its many partners, one challenging year of
implementation later, have taken many important actions to lay the foundation
for public health protection for the 21st century.
In the law, several deadlines were established for EPA to give States
and water suppliers tools to strengthen drinking water protection. To
date, EPA has taken every required action on or before the statutory deadlines.
We worked with a broad range of stakeholders to develop these actions.
EPA has also taken many other important steps to help ensure that States,
water systems, and the interested public continue to be successful in
their implementation efforts. All of these actions are vital to fulfilling
the Act's goal to improve public health protection -- through focusing
decision-making on the greatest risks, preventing contamination, ensuring
local flexibility, public involvement and citizen right-to-know, supporting
small water systems and establishing a Drinking Water State Revolving
Fund for local water systems to improve deteriorating drinking water infrastructures.
The new law achieves strong public health protection without imposing
a "one-size-fits-all" requirement for specific action. Every community
is different -- needs of each water supply vary depending upon local problems.
The new law ensures that we focus protection efforts on the areas of greatest
risk by providing for flexibility guided by "good science" and accountability
through extensive community involvement. One year of experience has proven
that public health and the nation's drinking water systems can be protected
in flexible, common sense ways.
Our challenge is to help communities utilize the many tools in the new
law to provide for stronger protection of drinking water and public health.
In this first year, EPA and its partners have begun to meet that challenge.
The actions taken to date will help us reach the goal of providing all
Americans with water that is clean and safe to drink.
Sincerely
Carol Browner
o Click here to read online the
document The Safe Drinking Water Act - One Year Later
o Click here to download
the document The Safe Drinking Water Act - One Year Later (12 pages)
in ADOBE PDF format.
| You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the Adobe PDF files
on this page. See
EPA's PDF page for more information about getting and using
the free Acrobat Reader. |
|
