Quality Water from Every Tap Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief (2021) / Chapter Skim
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Quality Water from Every Tap: Proceedings of a Workshop - in Brief
Quality Water from Every Tap: Proceedings of a Workshop - in Brief
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Quality Water from Every Tap, a workshop held in Washington, D.C., on November 21-22, 2019, provided an opportunity for experts from government, affected communities, academia, and the private sector to explore both the challenges and factors that affect the delivery of water with acceptable quality and the paths to increase the quality of water for systems that do not meet today's drinking water standards -- especially focusing on communities that lack adequate resources and expertise because they are small or have declining populations. The workshop was organized by a planning committee of the Environmental Health Matters Initiative (EHMI)
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Similarly, in examining the distribution of drinking water violations across different communities around the country, Pullen Fedinick described how such violations are not uniformly distributed: "Where one lives can dictate the quality of one's drinking water." She noted that water violations are more common in lower-income and predominantly minority communities. She also described a statistically significant relationship between race and slow enforcement of the SDWA, with water systems in communities of color being more likely to have higher rates of violations and tending to be out of compliance longer, even when formal enforcement actions were taken.
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Drinking water service in the United States is primarily a local government responsibility, with approximately 80% of Americans receiving their drinking water from local governments and municipal authorities. Thus, state and local spending on water infrastructure is an important factor and challenge, and the local context often plays a role in exacerbating inequalities in areas divided by differences in income and race.
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For financial challenges, there is a need to understand the value of water: he stressed that communities cannot grow without water or wastewater systems, and consumers are not now paying the true costs of having high-quality drinking water. Also, while water projects take time, the term of an elected official is relatively short.
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and Roberson also pointed out that point-of-use monitoring would further engage communities around drinking water quality and encourage consumers to take action at the local level. The development of low-cost water quality monitoring technologies was also discussed in terms of technology development.
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Michelle Frederick (California Water Boards) and Sturm described how dashboards are being developed at the University of North Carolina and in New Jersey to inform consumers about drinking water quality in their communities and enable comparisons with other communities.
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3 The Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund program is a federal-state partnership of EPA that provides communities low-cost financing for a wide range of water quality infrastructure projects.
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Financing and Structural Inequities Financial resources were an important topic of the workshop, building on the oft-emphasized need to invest in drinking water infrastructure and capacity. Oxenford noted that there are several loan programs that can be harnessed to support and develop capacity, including EPA's State Revolving Fund (SRF, discussed earlier in the workshop)
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Wilson said a survey of states by the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators indicated the barrier to implementing and developing technology is information dissemination among states and systems. LeChevallier suggested enhancing federal support of technological innovation and establishing common standards for technology development, which could be tackled via public private partnerships through the U.S.
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Utilities Public health departments Local residents Develop up-to-date digitized maps of community water systems Utilities Community Engagement and Communication Empower communities with data to build trust and support action Create transparency about water quality and violations (e.g., water quality dashboards that enable comparisons across systems) Utilities Advocacy groups Local residents Social scientists Journalists Improve community understanding of the importance of water quality Communicate with the public and elected officials about the value of safe water and its benefits to public health and the economy Utilities Nongovernmental organizations Journalists Help communities understand the connection between rate increases and the quality of their water Utilities Nongovernmental organizations Journalists Involve communities in developing solutions Build relationships to improve communication with the public Utilities Citizens Hire and train a local workforce Utilities Capitalize on experience when managing systems Utilities Economies of Scale Develop water system cooperatives, regional collaborations or other approaches to create economies of scale across small water systems Utilities Local and state governments Nongovernmental organizations Create incentives for consolidation and cooperatives Local and state governments Federal government Address cultural barriers to cooperatives or consolidation Utilities Local and state governments Nongovernmental organizations Create regulatory pressure for consolidation on systems with repeated quality violations Local and state governments Federal government Strengthening Existing Water Systems Technical assistance Establish or expand peer-to-peer initiatives Federal government Utilities Nongovernmental organizations Educational institutions Facilitate awareness of best practices through training and information sharing Federal government State government Nongovernmental organizations TABLE 1 Potential Actions Suggested by Individual Workshop Participants to Address Water Quality Issues (Continued)
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Researchers Utilities Pilot strategies to increase efficiency, especially for smaller systems Researchers Utilities State and local government Analyze benefits of alternative strategies for infrastructure investment Researchers Utilities Explore creative mechanisms for financing that spread costs beyond ratepayers Researchers Utilities Federal government State and local government Develop indicators of utility health Researchers Nongovernmental organizations Federal government Local and state governments TABLE 1 Continued NOTE: This table lists potential actions attributed to individual workshop participants; it does not include all actions mentioned by participants. These potential actions are not consensus conclusions or recommendations of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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REVIEWERS: To ensure that this Proceedings of a Workshop -- in Brief meets institutional standards of quality and objectivity, it was reviewed in draft form by Catherine L Kling, Cornell University; Amy Pruden, Virginia Tech; and Alan Roberson, Association of State Drinking Water Administrators.
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