It is difficult to overstate the dramatic effect that the provision of treated drinking water has had on public health and life expectancy. The enactment of national, enforceable drinking water standards in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) defeated the patchwork of state regulations and toothless public health advisories that existed before 1974, finally creating a national baseline for every water provider to meet or exceed. While advanced water treatment technologies have allowed people in the US to enjoy some of the best drinking water in the world, challenges remain, particularly related to contaminants like lead and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
SDWA is explicitly designed to align all three levels of government—standards set and overseen by federal experts, enforced and administered by state regulators, and implemented by local utilities. But the cost of compliance falls almost entirely on local governments and ultimately on ratepayers in a world where water un-affordability has been steadily increasing. When the federal government began mandating quality standards for wastewater discharge through the Clean Water Act just two years earlier, it also recognized that forcing local governments to spend billions of dollars to upgrade facilities and equipment to comply with regulatory burdens was impractical. So, it included the construction grants program and later the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) to help avoid foisting the responsibility of maintaining water standards and the costs of managing upstream pollution onto local ratepayers alone. However, the Safe Drinking Water Act had no such provisions, and drinking water utilities had no federal investment until the Drinking Water SRF was created in the 1990s.
We at the US Water Alliance think the next 50 years of SDWA could be massive. We are on the cusp of eliminating lead water pipes everywhere. We are more technologically equipped than ever to meet the needs of emerging contaminants, with improvements coming every year. However, the federal government must take a holistic approach and continue to make historic investments across federal agencies aimed at eliminating emerging and legacy contaminants in the water sector, especially in Communities of Color, rural and urban low-income communities, frontline communities, and Tribal communities. The water investment gap is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago, thanks in large part to investments from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). But we cannot wait another 50 years for more. Congress needs to fully fund the SRFs and reform the current system of congressionally directed spending that has diluted the funding.
Along with investment in water infrastructure, Congress should prioritize preserving and expanding capacity development and technical assistance (TA) structures, including those established in the wake of the IIJA investments. TA is the essential conduit for infrastructure funding programs, ensuring that communities that lack engineering expertise and financial application capacity can obtain federal funding for needed water infrastructure projects. We must also unlock and incentivize the full spectrum of regional solutions for the next 50 years of water challenges.
We have come a long way on drinking water in the last 50 years and we should celebrate those gains. Still, we also have a long way to go to fulfill the promise of SDWA and need to have opportunities for alignment among different levels of government and different stakeholders that will be crucial for success in the next 50 years.
