AWWA JAW3007

The plethora of congressional legislation affecting the water industry has helped produce an adversary situation among regulators, the regulated, and public interest groups in which the threat of litigation is pervasive. Efforts must be made to persuade all parties that an achievable course of action is preferable to stalemate by reason of litigation and financial default. It must be recognized that the buck stops with the local water utility official who must raise his utility's rates. Provisions of PL92-500 are reviewed in specific reference to the Limestone Reservoir on the Brazos River. The Shreveport, LA experience is reviewed in reference to section 404. Other items covered are: 1) trihalomethane regulations - THMs, 2) federal funding of water plants, 3) water treatment plant sludge, 4) EDF Environmental Defense Fund.