In 1984, for example, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee studying public infrastructure policies found deterioration of drinking-water distribution systems, inadequate sources of water supply, overdrafting of aquifers, contamination, and inadequate treatment. Those problems have not disappeared in the decade since the committee's report. According to EPA's own data, some 80 large systems serving a total of more than a million people have failed to meet regulatory deadlines for installing the fundamental protection of filtration. While many large water systems are deficient in treatment or protection in certain respects, the condition of small systems is clearly worse. These small systems, which in fact comprise the vast majority of the nation's water systems and exist within metropolitan areas as well as rural areas, present an administrative challenge at best and a clear threat to public health in too many cases.
Small systems are numerous and needy.
They account for a disproportionate share of Safe Drinking Water Act violations and are plagued by financial instability and lack of access to capital, poor management and accounting, substandard water quality, and limited technical understanding and capability. The problems of small systems, much like the broader problems of underinvestment in drinking water, have been with us for a long time. Still, there are those who would discount the historical context in which today's drinking water problems must be viewed and addressed. Many state regulators and drinking water purveyors believe that the 1986 reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act precipitated a water crisis. They believe this crisis will be cured by substantially weakening the Act and putting EPA in the back seat when it comes to judging and securing the safety of drinking water from one community to the next.