Despite many improvements in pollution controls over the years, water quality remains an urgent matter. Fiscal belt-tightening in the state agency that oversees water systems may be creating a health problem for Pennsylvanians.
Awareness of this problem is growing. First came the Flint, Mich., crisis that brought this issue to the nation’s attention last year. Then the issue rose to the surface with a boil-water advisory affecting 100,000 Pittsburghers in the past month. Now comes the public release of a letter from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to our state government, severely criticizing the state’s monitoring of water systems.
According to the EPA, budget cuts have caused staffing reductions of more than 20 percent at the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water in the state Department of Environmental Protection. The average number of water systems that each DEP inspector must now monitor is 149, while the national average for inspectors is 67. The number of inspections in our state, which are to be carried out every three years for each water system, has declined rapidly.
EPA officials point out that they have not yet detected health risks for Pennsylvania residents, but they issued the letter as a warning to prevent an emergency. Other states in the region have also reduced their inspection staffs, but our state was the only one to receive a letter citing several deficiencies and requiring a written plan for improvement. DEP officials say they are well aware of the problems cited in the letter.
Just as we have strongly backed a top-to-bottom review of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, we also urge the state to assess the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water. Will it take a Flint-type crisis to make our state legislators and department heads take action?
First Published: February 13, 2017, 5:00 a.m.