Information for States on Developing Affordability Criteria for Drinking Water

Pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, small water systems can follow one of several paths to compliance, including a variance path. The Act provides the conditions under which the states (or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for States that do not have primary enforcement responsibility) can grant a variance to water systems unable to comply with federal drinking water quality standards. Factors affecting eligibility for variances include system size, compliance alternatives, the nature of contamination and the risk to public health, and affordability. The states can formulate their own affordability criteria for use in granting variances.

The Act requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish, within eighteen months of the statute's enactment, information to assist the states in formulating affordability criteria. According to the statute, this information is to be developed by the EPA in consultation with the states and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The EPA enlisted the Small Systems Working Group of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) to develop this information document for consideration by the full NDWAC and ultimately publication by the EPA. Publication of this document fulfills the Act's requirement to provide the states with information for use in developing affordability criteria.

EPA has published a notice of availability for this document in the Federal Register.

Web Note: Download the PDF version (304 KB) or the WordPerfect 6.0 version (174 KB) or read the draft document online using the links below. Use the right mouse button, select the highlighted text, and choose the "Save" (or similar) option to save the file to your local hard drive.

Contents

Preface

      The 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) recognize that the affordability of drinking water may be an issue for some water systems, especially small systems. The Amendments provide State drinking water programs with important new tools to help address affordability concerns. The provisions of the Amendments which most explicitly address affordability are variances, exemptions, and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).

      Small system variances will, under certain circumstances, allow systems which cannot afford to comply through other means to utilize more affordable "variance technology." Exemptions will offer small systems facing compelling economic factors up to nine additional years to achieve compliance. The DWSRF will provide financial assistance to systems to assist them in achieving compliance. Affordability considerations play an important role in the implementation of each of these provisions. States wishing to take full advantage of these provisions will need to develop affordability criteria.

      The 1996 Amendments require the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publish, within eighteen months of the statute's enactment, information to assist the States in developing affordability criteria. The statute requires that EPA develop this information in consultation with States and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In order to fulfill this mandate and to ensure consideration of all key stakeholder ideas, EPA, through its National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), established a broad based working group, whose members included States and RUS, to guide development of this information document. This document reflects the thorough review by both the working group and NDWAC, as well as public comment solicited through a Federal Register notice (62FR62308 (November 21, 1997)).

      Under the 1996 SDWA Amendments, States have complete discretion in developing their affordability criteria. States are not required to submit their affordability criteria to EPA for any type of review or approval. Once States have formulated their affordability criteria, RUS suggests that they seek comment from their Rural Development State Director.

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