Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness Act

Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to require public water systems to notify their customers when a lead action level under national drinking water regulations is exceeded in more than 10% of customer taps sampled. (An action level is a level of contaminates which triggers a requirement for the public water system to take additional actions to control corrosion.) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must notify customers if the state or the public water system fails to notify the public within 24 hours of receiving notice from the EPA.

Community water systems' consumer confidence reports must include: (1) a definition of "action level," and (2) the action level for contaminants detected in water provided by the public water system.

The EPA must establish a strategic plan for conducting targeted outreach, education, technical assistance, and risk communication to populations affected by lead in the public water system.

EPA employees must forward to the public water system and to the state information indicating that drinking water contains lead that exceeds a lead action level. The public water system must then disseminate this information to its customers along with its potential adverse effects on human health, corrective steps underway, and advice on whether customers should seek alternative water supplies. If the public water system or the state fails to disseminate the information, the EPA must disseminate it as soon as reasonably possible.

(Sec. 3) The EPA must: (1) make information about lead in drinking water available to the public, and (2) carry out targeted outreach strategies that focus on educating groups that are at greater risk than the general population for adverse health effects from exposure to lead in drinking water.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov