Copyright 1999 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
APRIL 28, 1999, WEDNESDAY
SECTION: IN THE NEWS
LENGTH:
2162 words
HEADLINE: PREPARED TESTIMONY OF
DIAN
VANDE HEI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
THE ASSOCIATION OF METROPOLITAN WATER
AGENCIES
BEFORE THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
VA,
HUD AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES SUBCOMMITTEE
SUBJECT - THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY'S
FISCAL YEAR 2000 BUDGET
BODY:
Introduction
The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA)
is a non-profit organization composed of the nation's largest, publicly owned
and municipal drinking water suppliers. Member agencies are represented by their
directors and managers and supply clean, safe drinking water to nearly 100
million Americans.
AMWA member agencies are regulated by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and other
statutes. As an association devoted to the protection of public health through
the provision of safe, high quality drinking water, AMWA strongly supports
adequate levels of funding for EPA's drinking water and ground water programs.
The association sincerely appreciates this opportunity to testify before the
subcommittee.
Request Overview
More than ever before, the public is
keenly aware of how Federal, State and local governments spend their limited
resources. The Federal government, by making its regulatory requirements cost
effective and based on sound science, can help to make State and local dollars
go farther and assure the public that the benefit they receive is worth the cost
they are asked to pay. Indeed through modest expenditures, the Federal
government can deliver significant benefits to the public.
This request
outlines six such investments. AMWA's specific recommendations are:
- Health
effects research: appropriate EPA's $41.4 million budget request. Request
information from the agency regarding funding to conduct health effects research
on future contaminants as required under the 1996 Amendments to the Safe
Drinking Water Act.
- Provide $4 million for the American Water Works
Research Foundation, including $1 million for continued research on arsenic.
- Provide $2 million for perchlorate research.
- EPA's Drinking Water
Program: meet EPA's $47.8 million request ($43.9 for regulatory development and
$3.9 million for data management program development).
- State primacy
grants (Public Water System Supervision Program Grants): fund the program at the
authorized level of $100 million.
- Drinking Water State Revolving Fund:
fund the program at the authorized level of $1 billion.
Background
Drinking water is universally recognized as a central element in the health
and wellbeing of the American people. Furthermore safe, clean drinking water is
a key component in the economic health of our communities. Through advanced
research and technological capacity, Americans enjoy the safest drinking water
in the world. To ensure the continued safety of the nation's drinking water
supply, in 1974 Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Act was most
recently amended in 1996. When enacting the statute, Congress decided it was the
federal government's responsibility to set national drinking water standards, to
establish time frames for compliance and to oversee how States implement
drinking water programs.
Health Effects Research
In 1996 Congress
established a new way for EPA to develop regulations by requiring a new focus on
good science, which includes an increased reliance on health effects research.
In section after section, the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 call on
EPA to approach regulatory decision making differently. The statute requires the
agency to utilize health effects data to identify contaminants for future
regulation and for setting drinking water goals and standards. And for the first
time, the law gives EPA the discretion to consider risk trade-offs and to set
standards based on such data.
Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) In August
2001 - 27 months from now - EPA will select at least five unregulated
contaminants and determine whether to regulate them. EPA may choose from a list
of 60 contaminants that comprise the Contaminant Candidate List (CCL). According
to the 1996 Amendments, the agency must undertake the same process every five
years. To determine whether regulation is necessary and then to determine how to
regulate, EPA will rely on health effects research.
Recognizing the serious
burden this regulatory mandate presents, the drinking water community has
offered its time, resources and expertise to work with EPA to develop a research
plan to look at the contaminants on the CCL. We have volunteered to
cooperatively sponsor a workshop to produce a coordinated report and research
strategy. If EPA agrees to our offer, we anticipate returning to this
subcommittee with EPA to jointly recommended appropriate funding levels next
fiscal year.
Microbial Contaminants,
Disinfectants and Disinfection By-products
Beyond the research needed to satisfy CCL requirements, funds are needed to
expand the scientific community's understanding of the health effects of
microbial contaminants, disinfectants and
disinfection by-products and the effects of contaminants on
sensitive subpopulations, such as children, the elderly, pregnant women and
immuno-compromised individuals. Through disinfection, water suppliers are able
to control microbial contamination in drinking water, but the
process can produce chemical by-products that may be human
carcinogens or may cause other toxic effects. The Centers for Disease Control,
the National Academy of Sciences and EPA's Science Advisory Board have all noted
extensive research is needed in these areas. Without substantial investments on
an annual basis, Congress, EPA, States and drinking water suppliers cannot
assure American consumers that contaminants selected for regulation are the
appropriate ones or that drinking water standards have been adequately
established.
EPA-AWWARF Research The American Water Works Association
Research Foundation (AWWARF) is an organization dedicated to conducting much
needed research to satisfy research needs expressed by EPA and the drinking
water community. Like other drinking water associations, AMWA strongly supports
the Foundation and its research efforts. Last fiscal year, Congress provided $4
million to AWWARF. The drinking water community matched that amount with $10.5
million in cash. Over the last 15 years, water suppliers and EPA have worked
well together, with water suppliers putting up $115 million in cash and in kind
resources.
AMWA recommends providing $3 million for fiscal year 2000
for EPA- AWWARF research partnerships, with the nation's drinking water
suppliers matching those dollars. In addition, AMWA recommends that the
subcommittee set-aside $1 million for AWWARF to support the Arsenic Research
Partnership.
Arsenic Research Partnership The National Research Council
(NRC) recently released a report recommending EPA revise the drinking standard
for arsenic by lowering the maximum contaminant level from 50 parts per billion.
The NRC also recommended that EPA improve its arsenic toxicity analysis and risk
characterization; conduct additional human studies; identify proximate markers
of arsenic-induced cancers; and provide wider safety margins.
In addition
the NRC recommended that additional epidemiological evaluations be conducted to
characterize the dose-response relationship for arsenic and develop a better
understanding of the mechanism, and mode of action by which organic arsenic
causes toxicity and cancer.
EPA has outlined a research agenda to explore
and reduce these uncertainties, and AMWA strongly supports these efforts. In
fiscal year 1999, Congress provided $1 million in arsenic research funding
through the Arsenic Research Partnership, which includes AWWARF, the Association
of California Water Agencies and the EPA.
AMWA recommends again providing $1
million (as part of the $4 million requested for AWWARF) for fiscal year 2000
specifically for the Arsenic Research Partnership. As in the past, the funding
would be matched by individual drinking water suppliers.
Perchlorate
Research Research is ongoing to a relatively new contaminant called perchlorate,
a rocket fuel component found in water supplies in California and Nevada. There
is no known way to remove the contaminant from water supplies, and water
suppliers are concern that it will begin to show up in other locations in the
country. The research is taking place at the East Valley Water District in San
Bernandino, California. AWWARF is managing the funds. Last fiscal year, Congress
appropriated $1.8 million. For fiscal year 2000, we request $2 million to
continue the research. Water suppliers believe that research now will prevent
perchlorate from becoming a major problem in the future.
EPA's Drinking
Water Program EPA's drinking water program continues to implement the 1996
Amendments. This has involved instituting a new regulatory regime and developing
programs to oversee consumer confidence report requirements; monitoring relief;
source water delineations, assessments and protection; operator certification
requirements; microbial and disinfection
by-product standards; new treatment technologies; and the first
ever Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. In addition, EPA is constructing a
contaminant occurrence data base to support future regulatory decision making.
AMWA recommends that Congress meet EPA's fiscal year 2000 budget request of
$47.8 million to implement the Safe Drinking Water Act and other
responsibilities in the drinking water program.
State Primacy Grants
To
comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, Congress intended that EPA develop
drinking water regulations and that the states administer the program to ensure
compliance with, and enforcement of, its provisions. Administration, compliance,
and enforcement activities are collectively known as "primacy" requirements, and
federal grants to the states are known as Public Water Supply Supervision (PWSS)
Grants. States are charged with delineating and assessing their rivers and
streams to better protect sources of drinking water, overseeing the new consumer
confidence regulations, and carrying out the new drinking water state revolving
fund program. These and other new programs run by the states are integral to the
effective delivery of safe, clean drinking water. As federal requirements
increase, state resource shortfalls become more acute, and states are too often
threatened with the loss of primacy. Should funding shortfalls occur, public
health protections could suffer a major setback.
According to the
Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, states must implement more
than 20 new rules over the next five years. Meanwhile, there are dozens of
ongoing programmatic responsibilities. Together, these requirements present an
enormous burden for state government to support.
Recognizing this burden,
Congress - with the support of EPA and other stakeholders authorized $100
million per year for the PWSS program, yet for the fourth year in a row, the EPA
has only requested 90 percent of the authorization.
AMWA recommends Congress
fund the Public Water System Supervision Program Grants at the authorized level
of $100 million to ensure SDWA mandates are satisfied.
Drinking Water State
Revolving Fund
In 1997, EPA presented to Congress a report of drinking water
systems' infrastructure needs and identified $138.4 billion in needs over a
twenty-year period. Nearly $76.8 billion was identified as needed in the short
term. The share for large systems like those who comprise AMWA's membership is
$58.5 billion, and $10.2 billion is needed immediately to protect water from
microbial contaminants that could cause death or illness.
Other experts dispute EPA's needs assessment. Some put the infrastructure
needs for distribution systems alone at $325 billion. This does not include
treatment facilities.
It can be easy to forget that these large dollar
amounts are composed of thousands of individual projects, many of which are
needed so that systems will meet or continue to meet the requirements of the
Safe Drinking Water Act. Upgrading a treatment plant or replacing old pipes or
installing better technologies can run from a few hundred thousand to a few
billion dollars. Most project costs fall somewhere in the middle, yet the new
Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) is capitalized only to a limited
extent.
AMWA is hopeful that Congress will recognize this overwhelming need
and respond by funding the new DWSRF at the authorized level of $1 billion.
Conclusion
Congress, EPA, the states and drinking water suppliers have
before them a monumental job: to ensure the American public continues to receive
high quality drinking water. To meet that objective requires an investment
previously not seen in this arena. Infrastructure is aging, water systems
require new and better technologies to meet the challenges presented by
contaminants found in our rivers and streams and to meet future regulatory
objectives, and regulators must expect to base future requirements and
contaminant data bases on highly accurate research data. The nation's water
suppliers look to Congress for help in meeting these challenges.
END
LOAD-DATE: May 4, 1999 
