AWWA JAW59536

Since the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA) in 1974, an increasingly complex series of rulemakings has transformed the US drinking water regulatory program into a labyrinth of requirements supported by a vast administrative superstructure. Furthermore, with each amendment of the SDWA, the paradigm applied to the regulation of drinking water contaminants has shifted. The financial and personnel demands imposed by implementation and compliance with existing and upcoming rules have strained the limited resources of water utilities, state agencies, and USEPA itself. In addition to summarizing the current regulatory program, this article delineates the patchwork quilt of requirements specified in the Stage 2 Disfectants/Disinfection Byproducts Rule and other upcoming regulations. Unconventional approaches to water supply are identified that would be more economical than treating all water piped into the distribution system to strict USEPA regulatory standards. However, such approaches - dual distribution systems, point-of-use devices and point-of-entry treatment, and delivery of water of differing qualities to meet different customer needs - could trigger more regulations as well as ethical and legal issues. Although safeguarding the nation's public water system is a worthy and absolute imperative, the complex regulatory framework and administrative structure supporting this goal are in danger of collapsing under their own weight and outstripping the resources of large and small water systems. Unless drinking water regulations and their implementation are streamlined, the long-term efficacy and viability of the US regulatory program may remain at risk. Includes 27 references, tables, figures.