Formal Agreement with EPA
Washington has a
formal agreement
with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
(PDF, 75 KB) for meeting the requirements of the federal Safe
Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which was passed in 1974 and amended
in 1986 and 1996.
The SDWA includes water quality standards,
sampling, treatment, and public notification requirements. The
1996 amendments added new requirements related to annual water
quality reports, operator certification requirements, system
capacity, and source water assessment and protection.
Generally, the SDWA applies to water
systems with 15 or more connections, or those regularly serving
25 or more people daily, 60 or more days per year. Approximately
4,200 public water systems in Washington are subject to the SDWA.
Through its agreement with EPA, the
Office of Drinking Water has had full authority and
responsibility for implementation of the SDWA in Washington
since 1976. This authority is called "primacy." If
the state did not administer the SDWA requirements, EPA would
directly enforce the requirements in Washington.
As a condition of primacy, the state must
adopt and administer state rules that are at least as stringent
as the federal requirements. Under the primacy agreement, the
state receives a grant to pay a portion of the cost of
administering the SDWA.
State Statutory Authority
In addition to the federal SDWA laws, the
authority for the activities of the Office of Drinking Water
comes from several Washington State statutes:
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