Drinking Water Discussion - First Post Due Friday

November 12 at 11:59 pm
Investigation - Drinking Water Quality in your Hometown  

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health
by regulating the nation’s public drinking water supply. The law was amended in 1986 and 1996 and
requires many actions to protect drinking water and its sources—rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and
ground water wells. (SDWA does not regulate private wells which serve fewer than 25 individuals.) SDWA
authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to set national health-based
standards for drinking water to protect against both naturally-occurring and man-made contaminants that
may be found in drinking water. US EPA, states, and water systems then work together to make sure that
these standards are met. 

Data management plays a critical role in helping states and EPA to protect public health. The term
"states" refers to any entity with primacy under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to implement and
enforce national drinking water regulations.  States supervise the public water systems within their
jurisdictions to ensure that each system meets state and EPA standards for safe drinking water. 

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires states to report drinking water information periodically to
EPA.These reports are normally referred to as "Annual Water Quality Reports". Some counties even
provide mid-annual water quality reports. This week's discussion is an investigation of your hometown's
drinking water quality (this is different from the quality of the water bodies is your watershed that we
investigated in previous modules). 

Step 1: Read this summary of the EPA's water quality standard regulation process. 

EPA Water Quality Regulation

Step 2: investigate your hometown's drinking water quality. For example, if your hometown is the city of
San Diego, you would search for "San Diego annual drinking water quality report". Here is the link to San
Diego's 2020 water quality report: https://www.sandiego.gov/public-utilities/water-quality/water-quality-
reports

Step 3: Locate the table of where the water quality measures are reported (normally located at the end of
the report) 

Step 4: Investigate the report by answering these questions: 

 What are the types of water quality standards your hometown drinking water system test for
(primary, secondary, regulated, unregulated)? 
 What are the primary water quality standards they test for? Do they all meet the EPA's MCL
levels? 
 What are some questions do you have about the quality of your drinking water? 

Instructions:

1. Your Initial Post due by Friday, 11:59 PM:

2. Respond  to at least 2 classmates due by Sunday November 21, 11:59 PM 

Discussion Guidelines

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