Full Description

This article discusses a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) proposal to revise how it determines whether small water systems can afford to comply with new drinking water regulations, thus making it easier for States to grant small system variances (SSVs). The USEPA considered three key factors in developing the revised approach that include: variability in household costs of watertreatment;variability in small system ability to pay; and,the need for improved implementation atthe federal level of SSV provisions in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Under a new incremental approach, the USEPA wouldconsider the affordability of each new rule, onits own, against a much lower householdincome threshold for each size category. Underthis incremental approach, cumulativehousehold water bills would not be considered,in effect removing the 2.5% median household income (MHI) ceiling ontotal household cost. The USEPA is also considering whether itshould evaluate affordability strictly on anational level using the incrementalmethodology or use a two-step process thatadditionally assesses county-level affordabilitywhen a national-level evaluation shows aregulation to be affordable. To get around the potential problem of notbeing able to identify SSV technologies that costless than the affordability threshold amount, theUSEPA proposes to consider technologiesaffordable "if they are cheaper than the leastexpensive compliance technology and stillprotective of public health."

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Edition: Vol. 98 - No. 4 Published: 04/01/2006 Number of Pages: 9File Size: 1 file , 81 KB