Council member Alan Roberson recently returned to The Water Entrepreneur podcast to discuss his contribution to the newly released book, Safe Drinking Water Act: The Next Fifty Years. In his chapter, Alan examines the complexities of regulatory compliance for utilities and water systems. His conversation with Paul Gagliardo explores how compliance has evolved over the last fifty years and what changes are necessary to ensure safe drinking water for the long-term future.
Much of the discussion focuses on how dramatically the regulatory landscape has evolved. In the early 1990s, there were roughly twenty federal drinking water regulations; today, there are nearly ninety. Despite this significant expansion, compliance improved substantially after the 1996 amendments and has remained steady over the past decade. However, with additional requirements currently being considered, there is concern that compliance rates could dip as systems adjust. Nevertheless, the fact that utilities have maintained stable compliance while managing a growing regulatory framework underscores the sector’s strong performance.
The episode also addresses the emerging, structural challenges facing small systems due to aging infrastructure. Before the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), challenges to drinking water were mostly microbial. Since the regulation passage, drinking water quality has improved dramatically, but systems now face increasing resilience challenges. With almost 150,000 public water systems in the United States, many small systems are struggling to provide clean and reliable water service. Regionalization and consolidation are necessary changes needed to strengthen resilience and protect public health. While the first fifty years of the SDWA significantly improved water quality nationwide, the next fifty will require adaptive management, supportive funding, and long-term thinking to continue that progress.
The Safe Drinking Water Act: The Next Fifty Years is now open-access and available for download. The book is also available for pre-order on Amazon.
Listen to the full podcast episode on Spotify or Apple podcasts.