
	Water

WaterNews for August 13, 1998

WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water.

Inside this week's WaterNews:
1) New Initiatives for Drinking Water
2) Improved Watershed Management Tool -- Basins 2

1) New Initiatives for Drinking Water

EPA is celebrating the second anniversary of the revised Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and its improved public health protections. Over the past two years, EPA has been working with stakeholders to develop an array of tools that states, water systems, and the public can use to protect drinking water. The following Safe Drinking Water Act initiatives were recently released:

Consumer Confidence Reports

President Clinton announced on Tuesday that EPA now requires water suppliers to provide their customers with annual drinking water quality reports. These annual consumer confidence reports will include fundamental information about their drinking water, including drinking water sources, the level of any contaminant found in local drinking water, and phone numbers for additional sources of information. For consumer confidence reports rule and fact sheet, go to http://www.epa.gov/safewater/ccr/ccrfact.html on the Internet.

Revisions to Variances & Exemptions Rule

On August 6, EPA announced revisions to its existing regulations on Safe Drinking Water Act variances and exemptions. States or EPA may grant small system variances to allow public water systems to use specified, less costly technology to improve the quality of the drinking water. Exemptions under the Safe Drinking Water Act allow a public water system with compelling circumstances extra time to comply with a new regulation. Whether operating under variances or exemptions, water systems must always provide drinking water that is protective of public health. The final rule can be found at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/new.html.

Capacity Development Guidance

This document is intended to assist the public in participating in the preparation of a state's capacity development strategy. The document defines what is meant in the Safe Drinking Water Act as "technical, financial, and managerial capacity" and describes how a state capacity development strategy can benefit public water systems. For more information, go to http://www.epa.gov/safewater/smallsys/cdguid/capfact.html on the Internet.

Additional information on other new Safe Drinking Water Act Initiatives is available at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/highl.html

2) Improved Watershed Management Tool--BASINS 2

Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) is a multipurpose environmental analysis system for use by regional, state, and local agencies to perform watershed and water quality-based studies. The high volume of requests and questions prompted EPA develop new capabilities to make BASINS an even more powerful tool for managing watersheds; the system is called BASINS 2.

BASINS 2 is available to download off the Internet. The CD-ROM version of BASINS 2 will be available in the fall of 1998. This new release includes additional functional capabilities as well as an updated and expanded set of national data layers. BASINS 2 can be found on http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/BASINS/.

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