ASDWA

National Drinking Water Headlines

Continuing Resolution and Funding Landscape

On March 15, 2025, President Trump signed into law the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, a six-month continuing...

EPA Releases Seventh Set of UCMR 5 Data

On March 11, EPA released its seventh set of national drinking water data collected under the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring...

House Passes Continuing Resolution to Avert Government Shutdown

On March 11, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend federal funding through September...

EPA Announces Multiple Deregulatory Actions and Reviews

On Wednesday, 3/12, EPA Administrator announced multiple deregulatory actions and reviews. 31 of these deregulatory actions focus on the Administration’s...

Hidden Consequences: How Congressionally Directed Spending Impacts State Drinking Water Programs
In fiscal year 2022, the ban on Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) was lifted, allowing Congressional members to use the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRF) to fund community projects. Funding for CDS projects is taken from the DWSRF capitalization grants that go to the states and are then dispersed directly to communities as grants. Redirecting funds from the DWSRF significantly reduces the overall funding available to states’ drinking water programs that ensure public water systems (PWS) meet regulatory standards, provide technical assistance to improve PWS compliance, and increase public health protection.

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Hidden Consequences: How Congressionally Directed Spending Impacts State Drinking Water Programs
In fiscal year 2022, the ban on Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) was lifted, allowing Congressional members to use the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRF) to fund community projects. Funding for CDS projects is taken from the DWSRF capitalization grants that go to the states and are then dispersed directly to communities as grants. Redirecting funds from the DWSRF significantly reduces the overall funding available to states’ drinking water programs that ensure public water systems (PWS) meet regulatory standards, provide technical assistance to improve PWS compliance, and increase public health protection.

Read the Report
Beyond Tight Budgets (December 2018)
This new report updates the 2013 State Drinking Water Resource Needs Report to estimate the additional resource demands in 2018 from non-regulatory activities such as post-Flint LCR, PFAS, algal toxins, and SDWIS Prime. The increased workload is significant, ranging from 1.1% to 12.5% without calculating the impacts of inflation (an additional 20%) over the past decade. This analysis shows the growing demands on state drinking water programs and highlights the need for either additional funding or a reallocation of resources.

Read the Report
Beyond Tight Budgets (December 2018)
This new report updates the 2013 State Drinking Water Resource Needs Report to estimate the additional resource demands in 2018 from non-regulatory activities such as post-Flint LCR, PFAS, algal toxins, and SDWIS Prime. The increased workload is significant, ranging from 1.1% to 12.5% without calculating the impacts of inflation (an additional 20%) over the past decade. This analysis shows the growing demands on state drinking water programs and highlights the need for either additional funding or a reallocation of resources.

Read the Report
Costs of States' Transactions Study [CoSTS] (April 2018)
EPA is evaluating several options for potential Long-Term Revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LT-LCR). EPA presented several options at a Federalism Consultation briefing on January 8, 2018, and requested comments by March 8, 2018. ASDWA conducted this Costs of States’ Transactions Study (CoSTS) as part of its comment development process for these regulatory options. The detailed spreadsheets included in this study calculate the estimated hours for the five categories of regulatory options presented at the January 8th meeting, plus an additional category for “Regulatory Start-Up”.

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Costs of States' Transactions Study [CoSTS] (April 2018)
EPA is evaluating several options for potential Long-Term Revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LT-LCR). EPA presented several options at a Federalism Consultation briefing on January 8, 2018, and requested comments by March 8, 2018. ASDWA conducted this Costs of States’ Transactions Study (CoSTS) as part of its comment development process for these regulatory options. The detailed spreadsheets included in this study calculate the estimated hours for the five categories of regulatory options presented at the January 8th meeting, plus an additional category for “Regulatory Start-Up”.

Read the Report
ASDWA-ACWA Report on Contaminants of Emerging Concern
The public is turning to states for answers and actions when emerging contaminants are detected with potential human health and ecological effects. This report was a partnership between ASDWA and the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) and provides an assessment and several recommendations for states, federal agencies, and chemical manufactures and producers to better detect, characterize and manage contaminants of emerging concerns.

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ASDWA-ACWA Report on Contaminants of Emerging Concern
The public is turning to states for answers and actions when emerging contaminants are detected with potential human health and ecological effects. This report was a partnership between ASDWA and the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) and provides an assessment and several recommendations for states, federal agencies, and chemical manufactures and producers to better detect, characterize and manage contaminants of emerging concerns.

Read the Report
2019 Analysis of State Drinking Water Programs' Resources and Needs
State drinking water programs have been chronically underfunded, and the workloads have increased dramatically over the past nine years primarily due to emerging contaminants. The updated report on states' resources and needs shows that the increasing funding gap increases the potential for public health protection to be compromised.

Read the Report
2019 Analysis of State Drinking Water Programs' Resources and Needs
State drinking water programs have been chronically underfunded, and the workloads have increased dramatically over the past nine years primarily due to emerging contaminants. The updated report on states' resources and needs shows that the increasing funding gap increases the potential for public health protection to be compromised.

Read the Report