Council Member Chad Seidel addresses a series of key questions related to risk-based drinking water management in this SDWA short-form video series. These informational videos are based on the newly released book, Safe Drinking Water Act: The Next Fifty Years, which explores how drinking water systems can better prioritize public health risks, strengthen infrastructure resilience, address emerging challenges such as Legionella and Legionnaires’ disease, and ensure safe, affordable, and reliable water for communities across the United States.
Chad Seidel discusses the importance of focusing drinking water resources and regulatory efforts on the communities facing the greatest challenges to safe, affordable, and reliable water service. He notes that while most Americans can take safe drinking water for granted, some communities continue to struggle with contamination, aging infrastructure, and service reliability issues that require targeted attention and investment.
Protecting drinking water over the next decade will require sustained investment in aging water infrastructure, addressing significant public health risks such as Legionella, and providing communities with greater flexibility to prioritize the water quality challenges that matter most locally.
A relative health risk approach helps ensure that drinking water resources are directed toward actions that provide the greatest public health benefits. This framework encourages balancing new regulatory priorities with existing water quality needs so that efforts to address one risk do not inadvertently divert resources from more significant public health concerns.
Chad discusses how the Safe Drinking Water Act can better address the diverse needs of drinking water systems across the United States. His chapter focuses on identifying the risks that matter most to public health and explores how a risk-based approach can help ensure safe, affordable, and reliable drinking water for communities of all sizes.
Managing drinking water risks should focus on strengthening system resilience, maintaining reliable disinfection practices, and addressing public health threats that have the greatest potential impact on communities. Effective risk management also requires shared responsibility between water utilities and building owners to help ensure water quality is protected from the treatment plant to the tap.
Learn more about these insights by reading the open-access book here.