The Safe Drinking Water Act amendments
of 1996 enacted a right-to-know
provision that required all community
water systems (CWSs) to
provide yearly Consumer Confidence Reports
(CCRs) to all customers. The CCRs discuss
the source of drinking water, water quality,
and any contaminants detected during the
year. Because all CWSs must collect this
information each year, the US Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA) assumed that the
cost and effort to prepare the CCRs would be
minimal.
The authors interviewed 89 CWSs in
Nevada, which provided a weighted sample
in terms of CWS size, on four topics:
cost and time necessary to prepare and
distribute the 1999 CCR; consumer
response; costs versus benefits; and,
the effectiveness of the CCR as a way to
inform customers. The survey included 53
CWSs classified by USEPA as very small
(fewer than 500 customers).
The size and available resources of the
CWSs greatly influenced the survey results.
Although 39% of all respondents thought the
CCR was worthwhile, only 8% of the very
small, independently owned CWSs agreed.
Fifty-one percent of all CWSs polled felt the
benefits of the CCR would outweigh the
costs of future reports; however, 79% of the
very small, independently owned CWSs felt
that the benefits of the CCR would never
outweigh the costs. The perceived effectiveness
of the CCR for communicating with
customers also varied with CWS size - 61%
of all CWSs thought the CCR was effective
for communicating with customers, whereas
70% of the very small, independently owned
CWSs thought it was ineffective.
Benson et al hope that policymakers will
consider the opinions of the CWSs before
adding future requirements to the CCR,
because many CWSs already feel the effort
required to produce the reports outweighs
the benefits. Includes 5 references, table, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. 94 - No. 3 |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 450 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 6 |
| Published : | 03/01/2002 |
