SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT PASSES HOUSE
On Tuesday, the House passed the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The bill overhauls the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, which has
come under strong criticism as being overly cumbersome and
unworkable.
The new rewrite will streamline and improve the ability of
water systems to comply with the 1974 Act. In addition, it
authorizes $7.6 billion over seven years for improvement grants
to state and local water systems.
A last minute problem arose when it was discovered that the
bill's report language carved out $375 million for specifically-named water projects that are to be considered high priority.
Rep. John Dingell (MI), ranking member of the House Commerce
Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking member of the Commerce
Health and Environment Subcommittee, objected to the earmarks.
The bill was being considered under suspension of the rules,
however, which prevents amendments from being offered. In the
end, the bill passed by voice vote. Only one of the several
water projects earmarked as a priority is in California -- the Mojave
River Pipeline.
The Senate has already passed its counterpart bill, S. 1316,
and proponents of the legislation hope that the differences can
be resolved quickly in conference.
Overhaul of the Safe Drinking Water Act has been a major
priority of California's water districts for several years.
Although they support the bill, they prefer the Senate language
on radon, because a standard will be developed sooner and it will
be tied to the outdoor average occurrence, which accounts for
about 95% of the exposure to radon.

Volume 3, Bulletin 23 -- June 27, 1996