Committee on Government Reform
Torn Davis, Chairman
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
March 3, 2004 |
Contact: David
Marin/Drew Crockett
(202) 225-5074 |
Public Confidence, Down the Drain:
Government Reform Committee to Examine Federal Role in
Ensuring Safe Drinking Water in the Capital Region
What: COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM OVERSIGHT HEARING
"PUBLIC CONFIDENCE, DOWN THE DRAIN: THE FEDERAL ROLE
IN ENSURING SAFE DRINKING WATER IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA"
When: Friday, MARCH 5, 2004, 10 a.m.
Where: Room 2154, RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
The purpose of this oversight hearing is to review the
condition of lead contamination in the District of Columbia water supply
and to examine federal agencies' responsibilities for drinking water
safety in the District of Columbia and surrounding jurisdictions - and
possible actions for addressing the current lead crisis.
This hearing will provide a forum for the Committee to
assess the actions of and coordination among the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the Washington Aqueduct of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, and the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA),
and to review the effectiveness of applicable plans and regulations in
ensuring the safety of drinking water in the District of Columbia.
Was public notification adequate? What caused the spike
in lead levels in the DC area? Is lead service line replacement the
answer? Are federal safe drinking water regulations sufficient to
protect public health? If chloramines are the cause of the higher lead levels, where do we go from here? Is there cause for
more widespread concern in jurisdictions around the nation?
BACKGROUND
The Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to establish
National Primary Drinking Water Standards and enforce them through the
Public Water System Supervision Program. Public water systems throughout
the nation must monitor drinking water for regulated contaminants to
ensure public safety and to notify customers when a violation of
drinking water requirements occurs. States are delegated the primary
enforcement authority for this program; however, EPA retains direct
authority for the District of Columbia water system. On June 7, 1991,
EPA established a national primary drinking water action level for lead
at 15 parts per billion (ppb). This is a statistical trigger value that,
once reached in a water system, requires more treatment, public
education, and lead service line replacement. Public water suppliers are
required to report the results of their water samples on a regular basis
to determine whether the action level has been exceeded.
In 1996, the District of Columbia, the federal
government, and the surrounding jurisdictions collaborated to create
WASA, a multi- jurisdictional regional utility that provides drinking
water, wastewater collection, and treatment to more than 500,000
residential, commercial, and governmental customers in the District of
Columbia. WASA delivers water to more than 130,000 locations in
Washington, D.C., and provides nearly 135 million gallons of drinking
water a day to residences and businesses. To distribute water and
support the distribution system, WASA operates nearly 1,300 miles of
pipes, five pumping stations, five reservoirs, four elevated water
storage tanks, 36,000 valves, and 8,700 hydrants. WASA's water comes
from the Potomac River and is treated by and purchased from the
Washington Aqueduct, a division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Army Corps of Engineers runs the Washington Aqueduct,
which produces drinking water for the District of Columbia and portions
of northern Virginia. A division of the Baltimore District, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, the Aqueduct is a federally: owned and operated
public water supply agency that produces millions of gallons of water
for the District of Columbia and surrounding jurisdictions.
EPA regulations require each supply system to develop and
implement a corrosion control program. EPA gave the Corps interim
approval for its corrosion control plan in 1997 and final approval in
2000. In November 2000, the Washington Aqueduct added chloramines twits
process for disinfecting water in order to improve the quality of the
water. Chloramines are molecular compounds of ammonia and chlorine used
by many water utilities in the United States and elsewhere for
disinfection. The hearing will explore whether studies were conducted
concerning the new disinfection process used to treat water for bacteria
and whether the new process will affect corrosion and therefore lead
levels.
EPA regulations also require each supply system to
monitor lead levels in the tap water. WASA's initial monitoring period
for lead began in January 1992 with minimum sampling of 100 locations
every six months. According to EPA, that monitoring frequency was
reduced to 50 locations once per year pursuant to regulations that
permit reduced monitoring if the action level is not exceeded for a
certain period of time. According to EPA, Washington, D.C. water
suppliers had not violated any federal drinking water regulations since
August 1996.
On July 9, 2001, EPA received WASA's Lead and Copper
Program Report for Monitoring Period July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001. This
report indicated that D.C. had exceeded the lead action level in some
samples. On August 27, 2002, EPA received WASA's Lead and Copper Program
Report for Monitoring Period July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002, which
revealed that lead levels exceeded the action level in 26 of the 53
samples taken. A 10 percent rate of exceedance of the action level
triggers requirements to remediate the lead levels. The 50 percent rate
of exceedance reported by WASA to EPA was an indisputable warning of a
potentially widespread and serious lead contamination problem.
WASA was required to return to six month sampling by
January 2003, engage in a lead public education program, and initiate
lead service line replacement. While the regulations require seven
percent of the lead service lines to be replaced per year, they allow
the supplier to count as replaced all lines that are tested and show
lead levels at the tap below the action level. In more extensive testing
done during the summer of 2003, two-thirds of the 6,118 homes tested had
water that exceeded the lead action level. About 157 homes had water
with lead levels of more than 300 parts per billion, levels that are
rare, according to experts.
Extended and elevated exposure to lead can cause a
variety of adverse health effects. Children under the age of six and
pregnant women are at the greatest risk. Depending on the level and
length of exposure, effects may include interference with red blood cell
chemistry, delays in normal physical and mental development in babies
and young children, deficits in the attention span, hearing, and
learning abilities of children, and slight increases in the blood
pressure of some adults. Lead can also cause strokes, kidney disease,
and cancer.
WITNESSES
The Committee expects to hear from the following
witnesses who will discuss federal regulations concerning lead in
drinking water, whether the District of Columbia's drinking water was
properly monitored and protected, and how potential health risk should
be properly communicated in a timely fashion.
The Honorable Benjamin H. Grumbles, Acting Assistant
Administrator, Environment Protection Agency Office of Water
Mr. Donald S. Welch, Regional Administrator,
Environmental Protection Agency Region III
Mr. Thomas P. Jacobus, P.E., General Manager, Washington
Aqueduct, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Mr. Glenn S. Gerstell, Chairman, District of Columbia
Water and Sewer Authority accompanied by Jerry Johnson, General Manager
and Michael S. Marcotte, P.E., DEE, Chief Engineer/Deputy General
Manager
Erik Olson, Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense
Council
Professor Ellen Silbergeld, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health Professor Marc Edwards, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University
David Marin
Deputy Staff Director/Communications Director
Committee
on Government Reform
Tom Davis, Chairman
(202) 225-5074
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