Putting Better Water Quality Communication on the Fast Track

water infrastructure
Written By Environmental Policy Innovation Center

Dr. Sri Vedachalam, Jessie Norriss, Joya Banerjee and Tim Male recently published a journal article in American Water Works Association about how the concept of regulatory sandboxes could provide a creative path forward for utilities to publish reports that allow customers to quickly and easily determine if their water is safe to drink.

We discuss a few options such as:

  • Enabling legislation for a federal regulatory sandbox administered by the EPA Office of Water;

  • EPA using Executive Actions to give utilities flexibility to improve water quality communications;

  • States pursing new rules that allow alternate CCR designs; or

  • State regulators providing authorization to utilities to be more flexible in water quality communications.

Environmental Policy Innovation Center
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