The Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) reached out on July 31 to the many people involved with the 1191 public water systems in the state to review current law and present recent updates of the federal and state laws that govern the provision of safe drinking water to all Mississippians.

Bill Moody, Mississippi’s director of the Bureau of Public Water, reported that 99 percent of the state’s water supply comes from groundwater sources, while about 50 percent of Alabama’s water comes from groundwater and the other half from surface sources like lakes and rivers. There are only five such surface water suppliers in Mississippi, he said.

 THREE COMMISSIONERS

PSC Chair Chris Brown, the Northern District Commissioner, and South Commissioner Wayne Carr convened the summit well beyond the advertised 9 a.m. starting time. Central Commissioner De’Keither Stamps was a no-show for the day-long summit.

“At its core, this summit (was) about ensuring that all Mississippians have access to safe, clean, reliable, and affordable water,” the Commissioners announced. They in turn invited “professionals, community leaders, and concerned citizens to participate actively in shaping the future of water management in our state.” 

National safe drinking water standards went into effect across the country on June 25, 1974. Under Article 42 of the United States Code, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that the nation’s 40,000 community drinking water systems and over 200,000 other public water systems test their water on a routine basis to make sure that it’s safe to drink. 

A unique feature of the Safe Water Law is that it requires water suppliers (utilities) to notify consumers if the health standards or sampling requirements are not being met.

Deficient systems are normally given 120 days to repair their faulty operations and deficiencies, Moody said. But the Mississippi Department of Health (MDH) will extend the time allowed for repairs if it’s needed.

EPA, through the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974, periodically revises existing rules and regulations or will add new rules in response to the new contaminant information it gathers. Over 200,000 reports and findings from all over the country are caught up in a backlog at EPA, a state official reported at the July 31 summit. 

State drinking water rules are reviewed every six years and MDH modifies its inspection standards based on the new data presented by EPA, says Moody.

SAFE WATER

The Safe Drinking Water Act and its companion law, the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972, constituted the first successful effort under which virtually all public water systems became subject to a uniform and systematic sampling program nationwide, according to a statement from the EPA issued at the time of the new law’s adoption.

The SDWA set health standards for microbiological contaminants, ten inorganic chemicals, six organic pesticides, turbidity (or murkiness), and radiological contamination that might be found in any of the state’s water supply systems. 

Congress intended the states to be the central figures in regulating the quality of drinking water, and subsequently charged them with primary enforcement responsibility (“primacy”) over their water supply systems, an EPA spokesperson explained. But if a state is “unable or unwilling” to do the job of enforcing the national standards, the EPA will then step in and assume that responsibility.

Both the state and the municipality, or municipalities in control of the water system(s), are subject to fines and the loss of federal monies if the neglect continues after warnings from the EPA. In perpetually deficient cases, the EPA authorities will obtain a court order to seize direct control of those systems. 

The takeover of the Jackson Municipal Water and Sewer systems in November 2022 provides a textbook example of the measures employed by the EPA to ensure that all American citizens and households have a safe and adequate supply of drinking water. Jackson’s sewer and water is expected to be under the control of the federally-court appointed JXN Water for the near future.

Ironically, Mississippi, along with Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, were among the first states that attained primacy under the EPA rules in 1974. 

CLEAN WATER ACT  

In the 1880s, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was described as “yellowish…thick…stinking of oil and sewage.” 

“The river had been an industrial dump since the Civil War, and there were no laws to protect,” said former EPA Deputy Administrator Barbara Blum. “On top of that, the city of Cleveland dumped its sewage into it. Over that time, the river caught fire at least ten times, at different times causing several deaths, flames reaching five stories high, and property damages in the millions of dollars. Nothing changed, however, until the final fire in 1969.” 

Cleveland had let the river burn over and again, and no one in power appeared to want to do anything about it. But by the time of the 1969 fire on the river,  national attitudes about the environment had changed and outraged environmental activists successfully established the first Earth Day in 1970. The creation of the EPA and the Clean Water Act of 1972 soon followed. And although President Nixon vetoed the new law, Congress overrode his veto, and the CWA was born. 

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Is there a difference between the CWA and SDWA, two laws governing the nation’s water that were passed two years apart? 

The EPA explains that “both pieces of legislation cover water quality, purity, and safety; they are really different solutions for different problems.” 

“The CWA,” the agency explained, “is an environmental protection agency that limits pollution from point sources, reducing the impact of pollutants that are discharged from places like factories and sewage treatment facilities. The SDWA, on the other hand, primarily exists to protect drinking water supplies. It protects groundwater from various pollutants regardless of their source. The CWA is administered by the EPA, a federal agency. The SDWA spreads out power between federal, state, and local agencies.”

The Mississippi Legislature defines the water resources of the state that it wants to protect from pollution and neglect. And the state laws passed for such protection are in keeping with Title 42 of the United States Code, i.e., the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, with the oversight of the EPA and the MDH.