Company: AWK
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001410636-25-000022
Chunk: 36

Company: American Water Works Company, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 36
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 under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act and inspections thereunder.

Safe Drinking Water Act

The Safe Drinking Water Act and related regulations establish national quality standards for drinking water. The EPA has issued rules governing the levels of numerous, naturally occurring and manufactured chemical and microbial contaminants and radionuclides allowable in drinking water, and continues to propose new rules. These rules also prescribe testing requirements for detecting regulated contaminants, the treatment systems that may be used for removing those contaminants, and other requirements. To date, the EPA has set standards for over 90 contaminants and water quality indicators for drinking water, and there is a process in place to make a regulatory determination on at least five additional compounds every five years.

 The process of developing new drinking water standards is long and complex, but the Company actively participates with the EPA and other water industry groups by sharing research and water quality operational knowledge. See Item 1—Business—Research and Development—Contaminants of Emerging Concern for additional information.

The Company is within the EPA’s time frame for compliance with standards and rules developed under the regulation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which includes sample collection, data analysis, and, in some instances engineering planning and implementation of treatment enhancements. Further, the EPA is actively considering development of a new regulation for perchlorate and updates to the current microbial and disinfection byproduct regulations. The Company does not anticipate that any such regulations, if enacted, will require implementation in 2025.

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Although it is difficult to project the ultimate costs of complying with the above or other pending or future requirements, the Company expects current cost requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act and other similar laws to be recoverable through the regulatory process and therefore compliance costs are not expected to have a material impact on its operations or financial condition. In addition, capital expenditures and operating costs to comply with environmental mandates have been traditionally recognized by PUCs as appropriate for inclusion in establishing rates. As a result, the Company expects to recover the operating and capital costs resulting from these pending or future requirements.

Reduction of Potential Lead Exposure in Drinking Water

Over the last 40 years, there have been numerous federal regulations aimed at reducing the potential exposure of lead from plumbing materials into drinking water. Regulations have addressed both piping system materials and water quality. In 1986, the Safe Drinking Water Act was amended to prohibit the installation of pipe, solder and flux in public water systems and premise plumbing systems that was not lead-free. In 1991, the EPA published the Lead and Copper Rule (“