Representatives of NGWA participated in an online event hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concerning a proposed rule that could lead to mergers of small groundwater systems with other public water systems.
Past President David Traut, MGWC, CVCLD, NGWA Government Affairs Manager Ben Frech, and NGWA Regulatory Affairs Manager Chuck Job participated during the EPA listening session on October 8.
The Water System Restructuring Assessment Rule addresses the concern of EPA that many small water systems are routinely out of compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act standards.
The NGWA representatives, however, stated that options of physical or managerial merger or buyout identified in the rule were not necessarily in the interest of local communities. Traut made the case from his experience that existing tools given the right priority can address the noncompliance of these small water systems rather than developing new processes and spending more money.
Job reinforced this message by adding that state revolving funds can provide financing under existing procedures for plans and construction through grants and loans to small systems to solve specific local water problems more effectively than building long pipelines or changing management or ownership of small water systems.
The outline for water system evaluation and next steps is already presented in the Water Supply Cost Savings legal authority but has yet to be implemented by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The contingent from NGWA also cited the input from a state drinking water program manager that state water programs do not need more processes to implement, nor do small water systems that don’t have adequate resources for maintenance. They are better served, Traut said, by prioritizing the application of existing tools targeted to help small water systems.
The participants from NGWA referred to its white paper, Cost Comparisons of Local Groundwater Sources to Regional Waterlines, which shares the cost-effectiveness of local groundwater supply solutions instead of long pipelines to meet community water needs.
NGWA also offered to respond to further questions and provide additional information if requested.
The EPA indicated it was projecting a later date to promulgate a final rule after considering input from the listening sessions. Click here to read more about the rule.