WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) highlighted bureaucratic backlogs causing significant headaches for small communities in Wyoming during an Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee hearing on the implementation of the Drinking Water and Wasterwater Infrastructure Act. Lummis questioned US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox about these delays and asked for an update from the EPA on a letter sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan dated January 25, 2023, concerning the EPA’s Memorandum to State Drinking Water Administrators on Public Water System Cybersecurity.
“My office has heard repeatedly from constituents that are frustrated with delays from the EPA on sanitary survey results,” said Senator Lummis. “I have close to a dozen towns or small water systems that have waited, some as long as 26 months, to get survey results that were conducted in the summer of 2020. These delays make it really difficult for these communities.”
BACKGROUND: In 2021 the United States Senate passed the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA), which authorized water infrastructure programs under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA), by a vote of 89-2. This bill, as passed by the Senate, was eventually signed into law in its entirety as part of Division E of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, P.L. 117-58).
Click here to watch Senator Lummis’ full questioning.
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