[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 78 (Thursday, May 27, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6294-S6295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LAUTENBERG:
  S. 1149. A bill to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to increase 
consumer confidence in safe drinking water and source water 
assessments, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment 
and Public Works.


              THE DRINKING WATER RIGHT-TO-KNOW ACT OF 1999

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I am introducing today the Drinking 
Water Right-To-Know Act of 1999. This legislation is designed to give 
the public the Right to Know about contaminants in their drinking water 
that are unregulated, but still may present a threat to their health.
  Mr. President, when we passed the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments 
of 1996, I praised the bill because I believed it would enhance both 
the quality of our drinking water and America's confidence in its 
safety. While the bill did not require that states perform every 
measure necessary to protect public health, it provided tremendous 
flexibility and discretion to allow the states to do so.
  I was especially hopeful that in my state--the most densely-populated 
state in the country, a state with an unfortunate legacy of industrial 
pollution, a state in which newspaper articles describing threats to 
drinking water seem to appear every few days--that our state agencies 
would exercise their discretion to be more protective of public health 
than the minimum required under our 1996 bill.
  Mr. President, I am sad to say I have been disappointed. I am sad to 
say that in my state, and probably in some of my colleagues' as well, 
the state agency has clung too closely to the bare minimum 
requirements. A good example of this is in the ``Source Water 
Assessment Plan,'' proposed by the state of New Jersey last November, 
as required by the 1996 law.
  Under the law, the state is required to perform Source Water 
Assessments to identify geographic areas that are sources of public 
drinking water, assess the water systems' susceptibility to 
contamination, and inform the public of the results. The state's Source 
Water Assessment Plan describes the program for carrying out the 
assessments.
  An aggressive Source Water Assessment program is essential if a state 
is going to achieve the goals we had for the 1996 Safe Drinking Water 
Act. Source Water Assessment is the keystone of the program by which 
the state will prevent--not just remediate and treat, but prevent--
contamination of our drinking water resources. Source Water Assessment 
also underpins what I believe will be the most far-reaching provisions 
of the law--those giving the public the Right to Know about potential 
threats to its drinking water.
  Mr. Chairman, there are serious deficiencies in my state's proposed 
Source Water Assessment Plan. These are deficiencies that I fear may 
characterize other states' plans as well.
  First, under the proposed plan, the state will not identify and 
evaluate the threat presented by contaminants unless they are among the 
80 or so specifically regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. 
Under its proposed plan, the state might ignore even contaminants known 
to be leaching into drinking water from toxic waste sites. For example, 
the chemical being studied as a possible cause of childhood cancer at 
Toms River, New Jersey would not be evaluated under the state's plan. 
Radium 224, recently discovered in drinking water across my state, 
might not be evaluated under the state's plan until specifically 
regulated. With gaps like that in our information, what do I tell the 
families when they want to know what is in their drinking water?
  In addition, under its proposed plan, the state would not consult the 
public in identifying and evaluating threats to drinking water. This 
exclusion would almost certainly result in exclusion of the detailed 
information known to the watershed groups and other community groups 
which exist across New Jersey and across the country. Also, the state's 
plan to disclose the assessments are vague and imply that only summary 
data would be made available to the public. The public must have 
complete and easy access to assessments for the Right to Know component 
of the drinking water program to be effective.
  The Drinking Water Right-To-Know Act of 1999 will address these 
deficiencies by amending the Safe Drinking Water Act to improve Source 
Water Assessments and Consumer Confidence Reports. First, under my 
bill, when the state performs Source Water Assessments, it will assess 
the threat posed, not just by regulated contaminants, but by certain 
unregulated contaminants believed by EPA and U.S. Geological Survey to 
cause health problems, and contaminants known to be released from local 
pollution sites, such as Superfund sites, other waste sites, and 
factories. The bill will also require the state to identify potential 
contamination of groundwater, even outside the immediate area of the 
well, perform the assessments with full involvement from the public, 
and update the assessments every five years.
  Second, the Drinking Water Right-To-Know Act of 1999 will make 
several improvements to the ``Consumer Confidence Reports'' required 
under the 1996 law to notify the public of water contamination. The 
bill will require monitoring and public notification, not only of 
regulated contaminants, but of significant unregulated contaminants 
identified through the Source Water Assessments, and of sources of 
contamination. The bill will not require local water purveyors to 
monitor for every conceivable contaminant--only those identified by the 
state as posing a threat and having been released by a potentially 
significant source. In addition, the bill will require notification of 
new or sharply-increased contamination within 30 days. The bill will 
also require reporting not just to ``customers,'' but to ``consumers,'' 
such as apartment-dwellers, who do not receive water company bills. 
Finally, the bill will require that consumers be provided information 
on how they can protect themselves from contamination in their drinking 
water.
  Third, the bill will require that testing for the presence of radium 
224 take place within 48 hours of sampling the

[[Page S6295]]

drinking water, so that public water supplies can have an accurate 
assessment of this rapidly-decaying radioactive contaminant.
  Mr. President, the public has the Right-to-Know about the full range 
of contaminants they might find in their tap water. The Drinking Water 
Right-To-Know Act of 1999 will guarantee them that right. I urge my 
colleagues to co-sponsor this legislation.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that the text of 
the bill be printed into the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1149

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION. 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Drinking Water Right-to-Know 
     Act of 1999''.

     SEC. 2. RADIUM 224 IN DRINKING WATER.

       Section 1412(b)(13) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
     U.S.C. 300g-1(b)(13)) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(H) Radium 224 in drinking water.--A national primary 
     drinking water regulation for radionuclides promulgated under 
     this paragraph shall require testing drinking water for the 
     presence of radium 224 not later than 48 hours after taking a 
     sample of the drinking water.''.

     SEC. 3. CONSUMER CONFIDENCE REPORTS BY COMMUNITY WATER 
                   SYSTEMS.

       Section 1414(c)(4) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
     U.S.C. 300g-3(c)(4)) is amended--
       (1) in subparagraph (A)--
       (A) by striking ``The Administrator'' and inserting the 
     following:
       ``(i) In general.--The Administrator'';
       (B) in the first sentence--
       (i) by striking ``customer of'' and inserting ``consumer of 
     the drinking water provided by''; and
       (ii) by inserting before the period at the end the 
     following: ``that includes a report on the level of each 
     contaminant that--

       ``(I) may be difficult to detect in finished water; and
       ``(II) may be present at levels that present a public 
     health concern in finished water;'';

       (C) in the second sentence, by striking ``Such regulations 
     shall provide'' and inserting the following:
       ``(ii) Regulations.--The regulations shall--

       ``(I) provide'';

       (D) by striking ``contaminant. The regulations shall also 
     include'' and inserting ``contaminant;

       ``(II) include'';

       (E) by striking ``water. The regulations shall also 
     provide'' and inserting ``water;

       ``(III) provide'';

       (F) by striking the period at the end of the subparagraph 
     and inserting ``; and''; and
       (G) by adding at the end the following:

       ``(IV) direct public water systems to mail consumer 
     confidence reports to residential consumers and mail consumer 
     confidence reports suitable for posting to customers 
     providing water to non-residential consumers, in addition to 
     other methods provided for by the regulations.'';

       (2) in subparagraph (B), by inserting after clause (vi) the 
     following:
       ``(vii) The requirement that each community water system 
     shall report to consumers of drinking water supplied by that 
     community water system--

       ``(I) any detection of a contaminant described in section 
     1453(a)(2)(D);
       ``(II) any known or potential health effects of each 
     contaminant detected in the drinking water, to the maximum 
     level of specificity practicable, including known or 
     potential health effects of each contaminant on children, 
     pregnant women, and other vulnerable subpopulations, as 
     determined by the Administrator;
       ``(III) known or suspected sources of contaminants detected 
     in the drinking water identified by name and location; and
       ``(IV) information on any health advisory issued for the 
     contaminant, including actions that consumers can take to 
     protect themselves from contamination in the drinking water 
     supplied by the community water system.'';

       (3) in subparagraph (C)--
       (A) in clause (i), by striking ``its customers'' and 
     inserting ``consumers of drinking water provided by the 
     system''; and
       (B) in clause (iii), by striking ``customers of'' and 
     inserting ``consumers of its drinking water'';
       (4) in clause (ii) of the second sentence of subparagraph 
     (D), by striking ``of its customers'' and inserting 
     ``consumer of its drinking water''; and
       (5) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(F) Notice of newly detected contamination with potential 
     to have adverse health effects.--The procedures under 
     subparagraph (D) shall specify that a public water system 
     shall provide written notice to each consumer by mail or 
     direct delivery--
       ``(i) as soon as practicable, but not later than 30 days 
     after the date of discovery of new contamination or a 
     significant increase in contamination (as compared to the 
     level of contamination reported in any previous consumer 
     confidence report) by a regulated contaminant that is above 
     the maximum contaminant level goal for that contaminant; or
       ``(ii) as soon as practicable, but not later than 30 days 
     after the date of the discovery of new contamination or the 
     detection of a significant increase in contamination (as 
     compared to the level of contamination reported in any 
     previous consumer confidence report) by an unregulated 
     contaminant.
       ``(G) Definition of consumer.--In this paragraph, the term 
     `consumer' includes--
       ``(i) a customer of a public water system; and
       ``(ii) the ultimate consumer of the drinking water.''.

     SEC. 4. SOURCE WATER ASSESSMENTS.

       (a) In General.--Section 1453(a)(2) of the Safe Drinking 
     Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j-13(a)(2)) is amended--
       (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``and'' at the end;
       (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period at the end 
     and inserting a semicolon; and
       (3) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(C) assess the susceptibility of each public water system 
     in the delineated areas to any contaminant that--
       ``(i) is subject to a national primary drinking water 
     regulation promulgated under section 1412;
       ``(ii) is included on a list of unregulated contaminants 
     that is published under section 1412(b)(1)(B);
       ``(iii) is the subject of a health advisory that has been 
     published by the Administrator;
       ``(iv) is monitored under the source water assessment 
     program established under this subsection;
       ``(v) is known or suspected to be from a pollution source, 
     including--

       ``(I) a nonpoint source;
       ``(II) a facility subject to the Comprehensive 
     Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 
     1980 (42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.); or
       ``(III) a factory or other operating facility that 
     generates, treats, stores, disposes of, or releases a 
     material regulated or reported under--

       ``(aa) the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
     1251 et seq.);
       ``(bb) the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et 
     seq.);
       ``(cc) the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.); or
       ``(dd) section 313 of the Superfund Amendments and 
     Reauthorization Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. 11023); or
       ``(vi) is monitored by the United States Geological Survey 
     under the National Water Quality Assessment program;
       ``(D) identify each contaminant described in subparagraph 
     (C) that the State determines presents a threat to public 
     health;
       ``(E) for each assessment under subparagraph (C), require 
     monitoring for contaminants described in subparagraph (C) if 
     the State determines that a contaminant may have been 
     released by a potentially significant source;
       ``(F) identify, with the maximum specificity practicable, 
     known or suspected sources of pollution that may threaten 
     public health;
       ``(G) apply to wellheads, groundwater recharge areas, 
     watersheds, and other assessment areas determined to be 
     appropriate by the Administrator; and
       ``(H) be developed, updated, and implemented in cooperation 
     with members of the general public that are served by each 
     source water assessment area included in the program.''.
       (b) Public Availability.--Section 1453(a)(7) of the Safe 
     Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j-13(a)(7)) is amended by 
     inserting ``and all documentation related to the 
     assessments'' after ``assessments''.
       (c) Plans.--Section 1453(a) of the Safe Drinking Water Act 
     (42 U.S.C. 300j-13(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(8) Plans.--
       ``(A) Initial plan.--Not later than 1 year after the date 
     of enactment of this paragraph, the State shall submit to the 
     Administrator the plan of the State for carrying out this 
     subsection.
       ``(B) Updates.--Not later than 5 years after the date of 
     the initial submission of the plan and every 5 years 
     thereafter, the State shall update, and submit to the 
     Administrator, the plan of the State for carrying out this 
     subsection.''.
                                 ______