scholarly journals Effectiveness of Public versus Private Ownership: Violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-320
Author(s):  
Guanlong Fu ◽  
Pengfei Liu ◽  
Stephen K. Swallow
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Contamination Level ◽  
Treatment Technique ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Compliance Behavior ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Public Water Systems ◽  
Public Versus Private ◽  
Privately Owned

The relative performance of public and private enterprises has been long debated. We construct a comprehensive violation dataset based on the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System to empirically investigate the compliance behavior of publicly and privately owned Public Water Systems (PWSs). Our results show that publicly owned PWSs commit significantly more Maximum Contamination Level, Treatment Technique, and Health-Related violations but fewer Monitor and Reporting violations than privately owned PWSs. We also find that municipal-level heterogeneities explain a substantial amount of variation in violation behaviors among PWSs, suggesting water supply quality depends crucially on location-specific regulations and local economic conditions.

scholarly journals On the Distributional Implications of Safe Drinking Water Standards

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Cory ◽  
Lester D. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Relative Price ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Household Spending ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Public Water Systems

The provision of safe drinking water provides a dramatic example of the inherent complexity involved in incorporating environmental justice (EJ) considerations into the implementation and enforcement of new environmental standards. To promote substantive EJ, implementation policy must be concerned with thenetrisk reduction of new and revised regulations. The regulatory concern is that higher water bills for low-income customers of small public water systems may result in less disposable income for other health-related goods and services. In the net, this trade-off may be welfare decreasing, not increasing. Advocates of Health–Health Analysis have argued that the reduction in health-related spending creates a problem for traditional benefit-cost analysis since the long-run health implications of this reduction are not considered. The results of this investigation tend to support this contention. An evaluation of the internal structure of consumption expenditures reveals that low-expenditure households can be expected to react to an increase in the relative price of housing-related goods and services due to a water-rate hike by reducing both housing and health-related expenditures. That is, the representative low-expenditure household re-establishes equilibrium by not only decreasing housing-related spending, but also by decreasing spending on health-related expenditures in a modest but significant way. These results reflect the fact that expenditures on housing are a major proportion of overall household spending, and that accommodating drinking water surcharges exacerbates both health and food security concerns for low-expenditures households.

Off-flavor as the consumer's measure of drinking water safety

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Off Flavors ◽  
Health Related

If consumers detect an off-flavor in their drinking water, they are likely to believe that it probably is not safe. Water utilities will be defeating their best efforts to provide safe drinking water if they only meet health-related regulations and do not provide water that is free of off-flavor problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current U.S. regulatory environment and discuss how these regulations can adversely impact the control of off-flavors in drinking water. Utilities should adopt a water quality goal that allows them to not only meet the minimums of the regulations, but also meet the customer's highest standards - water that is free of off-flavors.

Waterborne epidemics in Finland in 1998-1999

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 67-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. T. Miettinen ◽  
O. Zacheus ◽  
C-H. von Bonsdorff ◽  
T. Vartiainen
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Contaminated Water ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Water Plant ◽  
Public Water Systems

Fourteen waterborne epidemics occurred in Finland during 1998-1999. About 7,300 illness cases were registered in these outbreaks. All except one of the waterborne epidemics were associated with undisinfected groundwaters. An equal number of waterborne epidemics occurred in public and private water systems, but most cases of illness occurred in public water systems. The three largest epidemics comprised 6,700 illness cases. Insufficient purification treatment unable to remove Norwalk-like viruses caused the only waterborne epidemic in a surface water plant. The main reasons for groundwater outbreaks were floods and surface runoffs which contaminated water. Norwalk-like viruses caused eight and Campylobacter three of the outbreaks. In two cases the epidemic ceased by the exhaustion of susceptible persons in the exposed community but in most cases it was terminated by changing the water source, boiling the drinking water, and starting chlorination.

scholarly journals Does Water Quality Improve When a Safe Drinking Water Act Violation Is Issued? A Study of the Effectiveness of the SDWA in California

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine K. Grooms
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water Act ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Public Water Systems ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Public Notification ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract The Safe Drinking Water Act addresses harmful contaminants in drinking water by providing states the authority to monitor public water systems, notify the public of exceedances above allowable levels, and cite persistent violators. Violating water systems are subject to intense regulatory and public scrutiny. The response of contaminant levels to violation status has not been explored empirically. This paper addresses this relationship through an event study using data on arsenic and nitrate levels in California. I find that violation status has a significant positive effect on nitrate levels post-violation, but no effect on arsenic levels. I also examine the effect of the 2006 arsenic Maximum Contaminant Level revision, finding a discontinuity in contaminant levels at revision. These results suggest that while public disclosure may deter systems from violating, once they go into violation the Public Notification Rule is not effective at encouraging a return to compliance.

scholarly journals Water and Sanitation Practices and Health: A Study on the Tea Garden Workers in Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Shohel Mahmud ◽  
Dr. Vinay Rajath D ◽  
Mst. Nusrat Jahan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Open Defecation ◽  
Healthy Life ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Tea Garden ◽  
The Impact

Access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities are extremely important for a healthy life. Without these, a healthy, sound and harmonic life is impossible. In many countries around the world, especially underdeveloped and developing countries, access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities aren’t satisfactory.The present paper tries to find out the water and sanitation practices and their health-related impacts on the tea garden workers. This study focused on the two areas of Moulvibazar District, Alinagar and Madhabpur, two of the most tea gardens brimming areas in Bangladesh.The data were collected from 60 households (30 from each area). The study observes: in both of the areas, people use open defecation or very unhygienic latrines and dependent on the open and unsafe sources of water. This paper analyzes the impact of these conditions on the health of the tea garden workers.

Affordable safe drinking water

Nature India ◽  
2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water

In pursuit of sustainable water solutions in emerging regions

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura R. Brunson ◽  
Lowell W. Busenitz ◽  
David A. Sabatini ◽  
Paul Spicer
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Market Development ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Water Solutions ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
Cultural Assessment

While lack of access to consistent safe drinking water is estimated to affect nearly 2 billion people worldwide, many of the efforts to solve this crisis have proven to be unsustainable. This paper discusses some of the reasons for these challenges and suggests interdisciplinary practices that could be integrated from the very beginning of a water intervention to achieve long-term success. Of key importance for sustainable water implementation is an enabling environment that incorporates aspects such as funding, potential for market development, and supportive governance. While this enabling environment is acknowledged, the focus of this work is on the integration of three key areas: (i) social and cultural assessment of behavior and preferences; (ii) market-based implementation approaches that draw on this knowledge; and (iii) technology development for these markets.

The Right to Clean and Safe Drinking Water: the Case of Bottled Water

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Dimitra Koumparou ◽  
Spyros Golfinopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
The Right

ENHANCED COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM ASMITAS – DIGITAL APPLICATION BASED ON THE SASMIT SEDIMENT COLOR TOOL FOR TARGETING AQUIFERS FOR SAFE DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjeev Sharma ◽  
◽  
Prosun Bhattacharya ◽  
Debraj Kumar ◽  
Prashanth Perugupalli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
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