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Drinking Water Program: States Face Increased Difficulties in Meeting Basic Requirements

RCED-93-144 Published: Jun 25, 1993. Publicly Released: Aug 04, 1993.
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Highlights

GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to enforce national drinking water regulations, focusing on: (1) whether states are meeting drinking water program primacy requirements; (2) EPA actions in response to states that are not able to meet program requirements; and (3) whether EPA has the capability to take over state programs if necessary.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency As part of the EPA strategy to deal with the drinking water program's funding crisis, the Administrator, EPA, should work with the cognizant committees of Congress to identify a funding level for the program that: (1) will maintain the integrity of the program; and (2) better reflects the program's importance in protecting human health. This remedy should be part of an integrated strategy that also considers the need to: (1) find innovative and cost-effective alternatives to achieve compliance; and (2) bring the program's spiraling regulatory costs under control.
Closed – Not Implemented
EPA has been unable to increase the budget for this program; in fact, the budget has decreased. The budget mark provided to EPA by the Office of Management and Budget at the beginning of each budget cycle has precluded EPA from increasing the budget for drinking water, according to EPA's drinking water program manager. EPA officials are expected, once the administration's budget has been proposed, to support the budget rather than to work for increases in meetings with the committees.

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Topics

Environmental policiesstate relationsFinancial managementPollution monitoringPotable waterState programsWater pollutionWater qualityWater resources developmentWater systems