Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Wall Street Journal - April 3, 1996
Timothy Noah, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The bill, a rewrite of the Safe Drinking Water Act, cleared the Senate in November in a version that the Clinton administration indicated, with some minor qualifications, that it would support. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in forming an environmental task force headed by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R., N.Y.) and Rep. Richard Pombo (R., Calif.), cited the drinking-water rewrite as a top priority.
And more than $1 billion has been appropriated by Congress for a revolving fund that states may draw on to upgrade drinking-water treatment -- provided that the drinking-water bill becomes law.
But a draft version of the House bill is stirring so much opposition from environmental groups and the Environmental Protection Agency that its passage is now in some doubt. An EPA official said yesterday that the House bill doesn't adequately provide for public-health concerns, but added that he is "still hopeful" a compromise can be reached.
The House bill is sponsored by Rep. Thomas Bliley (R., Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee. Its language, though consistent with Rep. Bliley's strong support for easing regulatory burdens, nonetheless surprised environmentalists, who supported a compromise drinking-water bill co-sponsored by Rep. Bliley and Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) in 1994.
Unlike the earlier House bill and the Senate-passed bill, the new House bill requires the EPA to show that a proposed rule can pass a cost-benefit test before the rule is issued. Earlier bills also promoted the idea of cost-benefit analyses but allowed the EPA greater leeway in their usage.
The bill also would allow review of proposed EPA rules by private-sector, peer-review panels -- a feature not included in previous versions -- and would delay a congressionally mandated deadline for the EPA to issue a rule on cryptosporidium, a microorganism that caused several deaths when it surfaced in Milwaukee's drinking water two years ago.
Rep. Bliley couldn't be reached yesterday to comment. But Jack Sullivan, deputy executive director of the American Water Works Association, which represents water utilities and other groups affected by the drinking-water law, said he thought the draft bill was "not a bad place to start."
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