Help Needed by Towns, Cities on Safe Water Told

Thousands of small communities are financially unable to meet federal drinking water requirements and need help finding cheaper ways to make their water safe to drink, a congressional report said Monday.

An environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a separate study that the nation’s largest cities are using outdated filtration technology to remove contaminants from drinking water.

The NRDC study and the report by Congress’ General Accounting Office were presented to a House hearing on legislation aimed at improving federal drinking water requirements.

The GAO report said that meeting federal drinking water standards is an acute problem for about 50,000 small communities that account for 90% of the drinking water violations.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that it will cost small communities nearly $3 billion to comply with federal drinking water regulations and another $20 billion to repair, replace and expand their current drinking water infrastructure to meet future needs.

Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.) estimated that 70% of the costs will be incurred by communities that account for 10% of the population. “It can’t be done,” he said.

Some municipal water systems rely on technologies invented before the Civil War, the group said.