Slidedeck from Environmental Law Class on the Safe Drinking Water Act

1. 1
Safe Drinking Water Act
•Standard Setting for Drinking Water
•Public Water Supply Supervision
•Drinking Water Source Protection
• Sole Source Aquifer Program
• Wellhead Protection Program
• Source Water Assessment Program
•Underground Injection Control
•Delegated Program (“Primacy”)

3. Types of Public Water Systems
• Private Domestic Wells- not federally regulated
• Approximately 23 million households (17% of the population)
• Public Water Systems (PWS)
• provide water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed
conveyances
• to at least 15 service connections, or
• serve an average of at least 25 people for at least 60 days a year.
• Types of PWS
• Community- supplies water to the same population year-round (33.5% of PWS)
• at least 25 people at their primary residences or
• at least 15 residences that are primary residences
• mobile home park, sub-divisions, etc.
• 32% obtain drinking water from groundwater

4. Non-Community Public Water Suppliers
• Transient Non-Community Water Systems-
• provide water to 25 or more people for at least 60 days/year but not to the
same people and not on a regular basis
• Highway rest stops, restaurants, campgrounds, hotels, motels, etc.
• 81% obtain drinking water from groundwater
• Non-Transient Non-Community Water Systems
• regularly supply water to at least 25 of the same people at least six month per
year, but not year-round
• schools, factories, office buildings, and hospitals which have their own water
systems
• 87% obtain drinking water from groundwater

7. Types of Drinking Water Contaminants
• Physical contaminants- primarily impact the physical appearance or other
physical properties of water-potability
• Chemical contaminants-may be naturally occurring or anthropogenic. Include
nitrogen, bleach, salts, pesticides, metals, toxins produced by bacteria, and
human or animal drugs.
• Biological/microbiological contaminants- include bacteria, viruses, protozoan,
and parasites.
• Radiological contaminants- examples of radiological contaminants include
cesium, plutonium and uranium.
• Emerging Contaminants- PFAS; PFOS, ;1,2 Dioxane

8. Regulating Contaminants
• Contaminants are "any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological
substance or matter in water.
• Drinking water may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of
some contaminants.
• Some contaminants may be harmful if consumed at certain levels in drinking water.
• The mere presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that the water
poses a health risk
• EPA must establish regulate contaminants determined that:
• may have an adverse effect on the health of persons
• known to occur or substantial likelihood that contaminant is present in public water
systems with a frequency and at levels of public health concern,“ and that
• regulation of such contaminant “presents a meaningful opportunity for health risk
reduction.

9. Contaminant Candidate List (CCL)
• CCL is the first step in the SDWA regulatory framework for screening
and evaluating the contaminants that may require future regulation
• EPA publishes list of contaminants that are not subject to proposed or
promulgated national primary drinking water regulation (NPDWR)
and
• that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems and
• may require regulations under the SDWA
• CCL List published every five years
• Draft Fifth Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 5) published in 2021

10. Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule
(UCMR)
• Every 5 years, EPA must list no more than 30 unregulated
contaminants to be monitored in drinking water by PWS
• UCMRs used to develop CCLs
• EPA has issued five UCMRs
• UCMR 5 will study 30 chemical contaminants between 2023 and 2025

11. National Primary Drinking Water
Regulations (NPDWR)
• Maximum Contaminate Level Goals (MCLGs)
• maximum level of a contaminant at which no known or anticipated adverse health effects occur
with an adequate margin of safety.
• non-enforceable goals based on health effects only
• Maximum Contaminants Levels (MCLs)
• maximum permissible level of a contaminant which is delivered to any user of a public water
system.
• Set as close to the MCLG as is “feasible”.
• Feasible means feasible with the use of the best technology, treatment techniques taking
costs into consideration
• May be used to determine cleanup standards for groundwater contamination
• Public notification was required for all MCL violations

12. Regulations for Public Water Systems
• NPDWR established for 90 contaminants
• Organics
• Inorganics
• Microbials
• Disinfectants
• Radionuclides
• EPA must review five new contaminants every five years

13. Health Advisories
• EPA may issue health advisories for unregulated contaminants
• EPA has issued health advisories to address various circumstances:
• when contaminants do not meet the statutory criteria to warrant a national
primary drinking water regulation,
• as an interim measure while EPA evaluates a contaminant for regulation, or
• to address a short-term incident or spill.
• health advisory levels set at concentrations that are expected to be
protective of the most sensitive subpopulations (e.g., nursing infants)
from any deleterious health effects, with a margin of protection, over
the specified duration of exposure

14. Lead and Copper Rule
•Lead can enter drinking water through corrosion of plumbing materials
-Common source of lead are lead pipes, brass or chrome-plated brass faucets and fixtures with lead
solder.
-Water service lines to building
-Water fountains
•1986 prohibited the use of pipes, solder or flux that are not “lead free” in public water systems or plumbing in
facilities providing water for human consumption
-"lead-free" plumbing may contain up to 8% lead
-solders and flux may not contain more than 0.2 percent
-New rules will lower lead content of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and fixtures to 0.25%
• 1996 Amendments into commerce of any pipe, pipe or plumbing fitting or fixture that is not lead-free
• 2011 Amendments revises “lead-free” to not more than a weighted average of 0.25% of the wetted surface
of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and fixtures and 0.20% for solder and flux

15. Lead and Copper Rule (LCR)
• Applies to public water suppliers
• Could apply to schools, day care, mobile home parks, etc
• Lead action level of 15 ppb
• Sampling
• -Static (six hours and cold) and flush samples
• -Resample or install filters

19. Arsenic in Water
• EPA lowered MCL to 10 ppb
• Many public water systems must treat because of naturally-occurring
arsenic

20. Common Violations
• Monitoring violations
• Maximum Contaminant Level violations
• Failure to do Public Notice
• Failure to report the violation

21. Enforcement
• Violation Letters
• Emergency Administrative Order
• Civil Judicial
• Criminal

22. SWDA UIC Program
42 U.S.C. 300h
• Underground Injection Control Program
• To protect drinking water supplies (DWS)
Subsurface emplacement of fluids by well injection
Endangers DWS if results or reasonably expected to result in presence of contaminants
causing non-compliance or adversely affecting health §300h(d)(2)

23. UIC Well Types
• Class I –Deep injection wells used for Hazardous wastes, non-hazardous
industrial wastewater and municipal wastewater
• Class II – inject fluids from oil & gas production for waste fluid disposal and
enhanced recovery (ER)
• Class III –Inject fluids to dissolve minerals (uranium, copper, sulfur and salts)
• Class IV –Inject hazardous or radioactive waste into or above a USDW. Banned
in 1984
• Class V – Any injection well that is not contained in Classes I –IV, or VI
• Class VI – Commercial-scale injection of carbon dioxide, termed geologic
sequestration

29. Class V Well Requirements Protective Requirements
•Construction and Siting
• -Cannot endanger USDWs
• -Submit inventory information
• -Additional requirements for motor vehicle waste disposal and large capacity
cesspools
•Monitoring and Testing
• -States and EPA can require any well owner to obtain a permit, monitor or close
the well if it poses a potential danger to a USDW
• -Periodic monitoring and reporting

30. Motor Vehicle Waste Disposal Wells
• New motor vehicle waste disposal wells are banned (2000)
• Existing motor vehicle waste disposal wells are banned in regulated
areas.
• States may allow owners and operators to seek a waiver from the ban and obtain a permit.
• Owners and operators must notify the UIC program Director 30 days prior to closing their
motor vehicle waste disposal well.

34. Large-capacity Cesspools
(think Maui)
• New large-capacity cesspools are banned (2000)
• Existing large-capacity cesspools ordered closed by 2005
• Owners and operators must notify the UIC Program Director 30 days
prior to closing their large capacity cesspool.

36. Fracking Exclusion
• Fracking Exclusion- §300h(d)(1)(B)(ii)
Underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel
fuels)pursuant to hydraulic fracturing related to oil, gas or geothermal
production

41. Emerging Contaminants
• Pollutants detected in waterbodies
• may cause environmental or human health impacts
• typically not regulated under current environmental law
• Sources
• agriculture, industry and manufacturing
• urban runoff
• ordinary household products such as soaps and disinfectants
• Pharmaceuticals

42. How Do ECs Get Into the Environment?
• Discharged as wastewater into surface water
• Stormwater Runoff
• Discharge or seepage into groundwater
• Wastes disposed into landfills that infiltrate into groundwater
• Wastewater sludge applied to agricultural lands
• Food Packaging and Boxes (pizza boxes)
• Commercial household products, including stain- and water-repellent fabrics, nonstick
products (e.g., Teflon), polishes, waxes, paints, cleaning products, and fire-fighting foams

43. Common ECs
• Per- and Polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS);perfluorooctane
sulfonate (PFOS); perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)-most common
• Manufactured chemicals widely in use in various consumer, commercial, and
industrial products since the 1950
• resistant to heat, oil, stains, grease, and water
• “forever chemicals”
• 1,4-Dioxane
• synthetic industrial chemical commonly associated with chlorinated solvents
(particularly 1,1,1-trichloroethane [TCA]) and was widely used as a chemical
stabilizer in other formulations.
• a byproduct or contaminant in consumer products such as laundry detergent

44. Federal Regulatory Actions
• TSCA
• Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) for long-chain PFAS that would require manufacturers (including importers) of PFOA and PFAS to notify and
phase-out use.
• SDWA-
• 5th Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) data collection on PFAS in drinking water (29 PFAs)
• reissuing final regulatory determinations for PFOA and PFOS (CCL4)
• Health Advisories
• CWA-
• Permitting for indirect and direct dischargers
• RCRA- Interim Guidance on destroying and disposing of certain PFAS and PFAS-containing materials
• Aqueous film-forming foam (for firefighting).
• Soil and biosolids.
• Textiles, other than consumer goods, treated with PFAS.
• Spent filters, membranes, resins, granular carbon, and other waste from water treatment.
• Landfill leachate containing PFAS.
• Solid, liquid, or gas waste streams containing PFAS from facilities manufacturing or using PFAS.
• CERCLA
• Listing as hazardous substances

45. SWDA Regulatory Action for ECs
• EPA Final Regulatory Determination for CCL4 regulated
perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid
(PFOA)
• CCL5 proposes to EPA proposes to list PFAS as a group (except for
PFOA and PFOS)
• URCMR 5 includes 29 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

46. NYS Regulatory Actions
• Established MCLs for PFAS, PFOS and Dioxane
• PFAS/PFOS-10ppt
• Dioxane- 1 ppb
• $3B Clean Water Infrastructure Act to upgrade water infrastructure
• Surveyed more than 2,500 facilities that may have used, stored, or
manufactured PFAS compounds (e.g., airports, fire training centers,
industrial sites

47. NYS EC Regulatory Actions Cont’d
• Evaluated almost 2,000 landfills across the state for ECs
• 77% of 210 inactive landfills have PFAS above MCLs
• Listed PFAS as hazardous substance under State Superfund Law
• Require EC sampling at 1,400 active State Superfund and Brownfield sites
• Developing Soil Cleanup Objectives (SCOs)
• Ban use of firefighting foam containing PFOA and PFOS in Aqueous Film Forming
Foam (AFFF)
• Limit amount of 1,4-Dioxane in household cleansing, personal care, and cosmetic
products
• Developing product disclosure requirements

48. Litigation
• Saint-Gobain and Honeywell (Hoosick Falls)
• Taconic Plastics (Petersburg)
• Norlite, LLC (AFFF incineration)
• Multi-District Litigation (3M, Dupont and other manufacturers)
• Department of Defense (AFFF contamination L.I. and Hudson Valley)
• Water Utilities
• Shareholder Litigation
• Homeowner BI/PD Claims