OPERATIONS
USEPA Releases National Water Action Plan
ON NOVEMBER 2016, THE UNITED
State’s Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water published a 33-page action
plan that identifies six priority areas for
assuring the nation has adequate supplies of
clean drinking water. The plan reflects input
from state, tribal, and local government
officials, drinking water utilities, community
groups, and environmental organizations
and was inspired in part by the events
surrounding the Flint, MI lead water crisis.
(See SOURCE, Spring 2016.)
The Water Action Report’s six priorities
include:
• Promote equity and build capacity
for drinking water financing and
management in disadvantaged, small
and environmental justice communities.
• Strengthen source water protection and
resilience of drinking water supplies.
• Improve transparency, public education,
and risk communication on drinking
water safety.
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16 SOURCE winter 2017
• Advance next generation
oversight for the Safe
Drinking Water Act.
• Take action to address
unregulated contaminants.
• Reduce lead risks through the
Lead and Copper Rule.
Estimates are that 27 million Americans
are currently served by utilities that
violate at least one federal drinking water
standard. Two years after Flint’s water
supply was identified as containing high
levels of lead, residents are still being
advised to use filters on their kitchen taps
or drink bottled water. The Detroit Free
Press reported that in the same month that
USEPA issued its report, Michigan Gov.
Rick Snyder’s administration moved to
block a court order for the state and the
City of Flint to deliver four cases of bottled
water per resident each week to households
that don’t have properly installed and
maintained water filters.
USEPA describes its Water
Action Plan as a “national
call to action” that urges “all
levels of government, utilities,
community organizations, and
other stakeholders to work together
to increase the safety and reliability of
drinking water.” Download the complete
plan at epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/
drinking-water-action-plan.
Related: In December 2016 the city of
Flint announced that it has hired Arcadis
to prepare a water distribution system
optimization plan under a contract worth
approximately $800,000. The plan is intended
to guide improvements for the distributed
water quality, sustainability, and long-term
operation of the city’s aging water system.
Arcadis will be responsible for identifying
operational strategies, standard operating
procedures, rehabilitation needs, and capital
improvements to ensure the future reliability
of the city’s water system. It expects to submit
the recommended plan in May 2017. S
City of Flint Emergency
Managers Indicted for
Role in Lead Crisis
MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL
Schuette has charged two emergency
managers appointed by Michigan’s Gov.
Rick Synder with multiple felonies in the
ongoing investigation of the Flint, MI
drinking water crisis. Darnell Earley and
Gerald Ambrose, two of the four emergency
managers appointed by the governor
between 2013 and 2015, were accused
of false pretenses, conspiracy to commit
false pretenses, misconduct in office, and
willful neglect. Schuette also charged two
former Flint officials, Howard Croft and
Daugherty Johnson, with false pretenses
and conspiracy to commit false pretenses. If
found guilty, Earley and Ambrose face up to
46 years in prison; Croft and Johnson would
face 40 years. To date, 13 former city and
state officials have been charged in the state
investigation. (See SOURCE, FALL 2016 for a
timeline of the Flint water crisis.). S
Continued on page 43
417 CALIFORNIA URBAN WATER SYSTEMS
are already registered. Don’t miss out.
CA-NV AWWA’s Technical Assistance Program helps agencies comply
with SB 555’s requirement to submit a validated Water Loss Audit
to DWR.
californiawaterloss.org