UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
                     GUIDANCE FROM HOTLINE COMPENDIUM
                                                                               WSGH6
SUBJECT:    State Enforcement of the NSDWRs

SOURCE:     Ray Enyeart
Title 40 CFR Section 143.1 states that the National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations
(NSDWRs) are not federally enforceable, but are intended only as guidelines to the States.
However, SDWA Section 1414(d) indicates that States must ensure compliance with the
NSDWRs, or they will be "notified" by EPA. What is the intent of 1414(d)? Also, have primacy
agreements between the States and Regions mandated that States enforce the NSDWR as they
must the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations?

       Response:

       Section 1414(d) of the SDWA sets forth the federal requirements pertaining to the States'
       failure to ensure compliance with the NSDWRs.  Subsection (d) provides:

       Whenever, on the basis of information available to him, the Administrator finds that
       within reasonable time after NSDWR have been promulgated, one or more public water
       systems in a State do not comply with secondary regulations, and that non-compliance
       appears to result from a failure of such States to take reasonable action to assure that
       public water systems throughout the States meet secondary regulations, he shall so notify
       the State. The preamble to the July 19, 1979, NSDWR final rule states that [44 FR
       42196]: EPA interprets Section 1414(d) to give the States the responsibility of taking
       "reasonable action" to assure the public water systems are providing drinking water which
       protects the public welfare and does not cause consumers not to drink the water served
       due to aesthetic reasons.

              ...Appropriate action  in a particular case will depend on a number
              of factors including: the degree of non-compliance with the
              secondary regulations; the direct and indirect adverse results such
              as the incurrence of substantial expenditures by individuals to
              upgrade the quality at the tap or the risk and expense of individuals
              shifting to other water sources; the nature of the raw water sources
              available; and such efforts that are  being taken to assure
              compliance with the primary regulations.

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      UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
              GUIDANCE FROM HOTLINE COMPENDIUM
                                                                     WSGH6
In response to the second portion of the question, "Have primacy agreements between the
States and Regions mandated that states enforce the secondary regulations?" The answer
is no.

Although some States have adopted EPA regulations as State secondary regulations
(some States have even adopted select secondary contaminants as State primary
contaminants), State activity on secondary contaminant regulations played no role in EPA
determinations of whether or not to delegate primacy to States.

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