Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 20, 1994 TAG: 9405200059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The Environmental Protection Agency lauded the legislation, which cleared the Senate 95-3, and sought to counter criticism that it would lessen health protection.
``It protects the American public, but at the same time provides states and communities with the flexibility with resources that they need,'' said Loretta Ucelli, a spokeswoman for EPA Administrator Carol Browner.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a key sponsor of the bill, rejected suggestions that drinking water safety was being eroded. ``These changes better protect public health,'' he insisted.
The measure next must be considered by the House.
Ironically, the Senate vote came as people in Milwaukee, Wis., were being warned that residents with weakened immune systems should boil their water because traces of the parasite cryptosporidium had been found in the water system. Officials said the general public need not worry, but bottled water sales increased.
The same parasite was blamed for 400,000 people becoming ill in Milwaukee about a year ago. The city has conducted monthly tests for the parasite since then, although it remains unregulated by the EPA.
The Senate bill would allow local officials and states greater say in setting drinking water standards and would reduce the number of chemicals regulated, focusing on those believed to pose the greatest health risks.
Smaller communities, with water systems serving fewer than 10,000 people, would be allowed to meet more lenient requirements than large urban systems, to use less costly technology and to conduct fewer tests for contaminants.
To garner wider Republican and conservative support, the bill's supporters agreed to require that the EPA consider costs and benefits as well as comparative health risks in developing water quality standards. For the first time the EPA would have to evaluate what impact a regulation might have on a ``taking'' of private property. Such a review would not directly affect the agency's ability to issue a regulation under the law, but might be time-consuming.
The bill also would for the first time establish a $1-billion-a-year revolving loan fund to be used by states and local authorities to pay for drinking water treatment projects.
But the tinkering with drinking water standards and the increased focus on cost and risk assessment worried some environmentalists and physicians.
``It's a plague on the American public,'' said Blake Early of the Sierra Club. ``Our tap water is already unreliable, and the Senate bill assures it will remain so.''
Carolyn Hartmann, an attorney for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said the bill ``weakens drinking water protection,'' including protection against carcinogens. The bill allows communities in some cases to use less expensive means of dealing with cancer-causing chemicals as long as health benefits are not significantly reduced.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, chairman of community medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said the changes ``set a dangerous precedent'' that could lead to less protective drinking water, especially for infants and other vulnerable segments of the population.
by CNB