Celebrating the SDWA!

By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director - Follow Lynn on Twitter (@LTCWA) On December 9^th I spoke at a Safe Drinking Water Act 40^th anniversary Forum about why we have to stop using our drinking water sources as a dumping ground and our treatment plants as a pollution solution. The day’s agenda featured leaders from the drinking water sector, including representatives from Public Water Systems, drinking water associations and the state agencies who implement the Safe Drinking Water Act. There were some special guests too. Vic Kimm was one of the first EPA employees and the Director of the Drinking Water Office when the Act was first being implemented. For those of us immersed in the details of drinking water regulation, hearing about what it was like to figure this all out after the Act passed in 1974 was a good reminder of how regulatory programs evolve. James Salzman, author of Drinking Water: A History, described the importance of water provision in a historical context. And Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, the keynote speaker, reminded us that you have to think of our drinking water the way you might think of raising a child. “Protecting drinking water is like having a kid. You can't just show up at the end and expect them to be healthy. We have to protect our water from source to tap.” I told the audience that this year’s high-profile drinking water disruptions are directly related to our need to stand up to polluters and to laws and regulations that allow contamination of drinking water sources when it can be prevented. “There is much we can do to influence this country to stop talking about drinking water only when there is a problem and to truly Put Drinking Water First,” I said. And it’s true. You can read my speech here, watch the whole SDWA Forum here and check out a new Call to Action released yesterday by the Source Water Collaborative, of which Clean Water Action is a founding member.