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The Safe Drinking Water Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the responsibility for setting national drinking water standards that protect the health of the 250 million people who get their water from public water systems.  Other people get their water from private wells which are not subject to Federal Regulations.  Since 1974, EPA has set national safety standards for over 80 contaminants that may occur in drinking water.

While EPA and state governments set and enforce standards, local governments and private water suppliers have direct responsibility for the quality of the water that flows to your tap.   Water systems test and treat their water, maintain the distribution systems that deliver water to consumers, and report on their water quality to the state.  States and EPA provide technical assistance to water suppliers and can take legal action against systems that fail to provide water that meets state and EPA standards. 

For more information

• Read Water on Tap: What You Need To Know
• Find out what's going on in your state.  Find its drinking water web site through EPA's local drinking water information web site .  This site will also help you find information about your drinking water supplier. 
• EPA's rules don't apply to water from private wells, but EPA does have some recommendations for people who get water from private wells. 
• To learn how EPA sets limits on drinking water contaminants, read Setting Standards for Safe Drinking Water . 
• Read the complete Safe Drinking Water Act or a summary of the 1996 Amendments to the Acthttp://www.epa.gov/safewater 
• Each state writes an annual report on its systems' compliance with drinking water rules.  EPA compiles and analyzes these reports in its Compliance Report.

The Safe Drinking Water Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the responsibility for setting national drinking water standards that protect the health of the 250 million people who get their water from public water systems.  Other people get their water from private wells which are not subject to Federal Regulations.  Since 1974, EPA has set national safety standards for over 80 contaminants that may occur in drinking water.

While EPA and state governments set and enforce standards, local governments and private water suppliers have direct responsibility for the quality of the water that flows to your tap.   Water systems test and treat their water, maintain the distribution systems that deliver water to consumers, and report on their water quality to the state.  States and EPA provide technical assistance to water suppliers and can take legal action against systems that fail to provide water that meets state and EPA standards. 

For more information

• Read Water on Tap: What You Need To Know
• Find out what's going on in your state.  Find its drinking water web site through EPA's local drinking water information web site .  This site will also help you find information about your drinking water supplier. 
• EPA's rules don't apply to water from private wells, but EPA does have some recommendations for people who get water from private wells. 
• To learn how EPA sets limits on drinking water contaminants, read Setting Standards for Safe Drinking Water . 
• Read the complete Safe Drinking Water Act or a summary of the 1996 Amendments to the Act.
• Each state writes an annual report on its systems' compliance with drinking water rules.  EPA compiles and analyzes these reports in its Compliance Report.

Using the new information that is now available about drinking water, citizens can both be aware of the challenges of keeping drinking water safe and take an active role in protecting drinking water.  There are lots of ways that individuals can get involved.  Some people will help clean up the watershed that is the source of their community's water.  Other people might get involved in wellhead protection activities to prevent the contamination of the ground water source that provides water to their community.  These people will be able to make use of the information that states and water systems are gathering as they assess their sources of water. 

Other people will want to attend public meetings to ensure that the community's need for safe drinking water is considered in making decisions about land use.  You may wish to participate as your state and water system make funding decisions.  And all consumers can do their part to conserve water and to dispose properly of household chemicals. 

For more information:

• Read It's YOUR Drinking Water: Get to Know it and Protect it!: How the right-to-know provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act can help you learn about and protect your drinking water. (EPA-810-K-99-002) or download a printable PDF 
• Learn about what source water protection can mean to your community 
• The Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst program can help you to keep your farm or home from being a source of drinkingwater contaminants, and help you prevent contamination of your own drinking water supply.   
• Many communities have implemented successful programs to protect their ground water source.  Learn how do wellhead protection in your community from The Groundwater Foundation and the Ground Water Protection Council
• Find out what your state is doing about source water protection.  Visit your state's source water protection web site, which you can find through EPA's local drinking water info site 
• To find out about source water protection and local watershed cleanup activities, check Adopt Your Watershed  
• See what proposed EPA rules about drinking water are open for comment 
• Be careful not to waste water. Read Using Water Efficiently: Ideas for Residences (955 K PDF FILE, 2 pgs) and other efficiency publications.

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