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Drinking Water: The District of Columbia and Communities Nationwide Face Serious Challenges in Their Efforts to Safeguard Water Supplies

GAO-08-687T Published: Apr 15, 2008. Publicly Released: Apr 15, 2008.
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Highlights

The discovery in 2004 of lead contamination in the District of Columbia's drinking water resulted in an administrative order between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the District's Water and Sewer Authority (WASA), requiring WASA to take a number of corrective actions. WASA also took additional, longer-term measures, most notably a roughly $400 million program to replace what may be 35,000 lead service lines in public space within its service area. As in WASA's case, water utilities nationwide are under increasing pressure to make significant investments to upgrade aging and deteriorating infrastructures, improve security, serve a growing population, and meet new regulatory requirements. In this context, GAO's testimony presents observations on (1) WASA's efforts to address lead contamination in light of its other pressing water infrastructure needs, and (2) the extent to which WASA's challenges are indicative of those facing water utilities nationwide. To address these issues, GAO relied primarily on its 2005 and 2006 reports on lead contamination in drinking water, as well as other recent GAO reports examining the nation's water infrastructure needs and strategies to address these needs.

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Cost controlDecontaminationEnvironmental monitoringFunds managementGroundwaterGroundwater contaminationHealth hazardsLead poisoningMunicipal governmentsPotable waterProgram managementPublic utilitiesRegulatory agenciesStrategic planningWater pipelinesWater pollutionWater pollution controlWater qualityWater quality managementWater quality standardsWater treatmentCost estimatesProgram costsProgram implementationStandards (water quality)