New York Times on drinking water violations

According to an article in today's New York Times, 20 percent of drinking water systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years.

The article -- Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show – does not breakdown violations by state or region, but it is safe to say these violations have effected the Intermountain West as much as anywhere else in the country. The article states:

An analysis of E.P.A. data shows that Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in parts of every state.

Given the nature of our region, many of our systems are small and rural. These are the very systems the analysis found the majority of the problems…although to be fair these systems probably represent the majority of the systems.

The majority of drinking water violations since 2004 have occurred at water systems serving fewer than 20,000 residents, where resources and managerial expertise are often in short supply.