EPA Criticizes Pennsylvania's Safe Drinking Water Program

The Pennsylvania state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been under scrutiny by federal regulators for failures in administration of its safe drinking water program.

According to a letter from the U.S. EPA to the DEP obtained by the Pittsburgh Gazette, a lack of funding has caused staffing cuts, significantly reducing the number of public water system inspections and creating a situation that “can have serious public health implications as major violations could be going unidentified.”

If minimum federal inspection and regulation requirements cannot be met by the state Safe Drinking Water program, the letter said, then “the DEP could be required to cede control of the program to the EPA.”

“We’ve seen no actual health problems, but the reason we sent the letter is to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Rick Rogers, acting deputy director of EPA’s regional water protection division, told the Gazette.

He added that the “DEP budget cuts have caused staffing reductions of more than 20 percent in the DEP’s Bureau of Safe Drinking Water.”

Rogers added that while drinking water programs in other states within the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region have also succumbed to budget cuts, only the state of Pennsylvania has “multiple program deficiencies and been required to submit a written ‘action plan’ detailing how the state will provide the resources to meet the minimum federal water program requirements.”

Neil Shader, a DEP spokesman, issued a statement on the federal criticism of the state’s program.

“The DEP is aware of the concerns expressed by EPA in regards to staffing levels and resources, and shares those concerns,” Shader said. “The EPA’s concerns are well-founded, and without additional investment, the problems outlined by EPA will continue to be exacerbated.”

Shader added that “the DEP is discussing how best to address the programmatic and staffing shortfalls with its technical advisory committee.”

The EPA, in its letter, said “that over the past six years the number of drinking water program inspections, known as ‘sanitary surveys,’ has ‘significantly declined,’ dropping from 3,177 in fiscal 2009-10 to 1,847 in fiscal 2015-16. The DEP is supposed to do the full, top-to-bottom sanitary surveys of each public water system every three years.”

“We know the DEP water program staff remaining is excellent, and are doing the best with the resources they have,” Rogers said.

Last September, The Hill reported that in a letter to EPA officials, the Office of Program Evaluation at the administration’s inspector general’s office said that it is working to “determine whether the EPA can improve its oversight of state drinking water sampling programs.”

Water Issues Director Kathlene Butler wrote in her letter that the study had been scheduled as part of the Office of the Inspector General’s 2016 annual plan

The study came after controversy over how the EPA handled drinking water testing in Flint, MI.

According to The Hill, the EPA did know ahead of time that Flint’s drinking water was contaminated with lead, but there was not much the agency could do to address the problem. Under federal law, state regulators are in charge of testing drinking water and enforcing water safety laws.

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