Washington, D.C. – Today the House Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials held a hearing on chemical security at drinking water systems. Testifying for the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), Brad Coffey told subcommittee members that local water system managers are the best equipped to decide the most appropriate treatment methods for disinfecting water and protecting public health.
Coffey, who is the water treatment manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), urged Congress to resist proposed legislation that would empower the federal government to override local experts and force individual drinking water utilities to change their water treatment methods. H.R. 5577, the “Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act,” currently pending before the committee would allow the Department of Homeland Security to override the decisions of local water treatment experts in determining how to disinfect water supplies.
Coffey said that MWD has evaluated several treatment alternatives, but for a number of public health and security reasons determined that chlorine gas remains MWD’s best option. The complexity of these and other local factors to consider on a case-by-case basis makes clear that local water utility managers, not federal government officials, are the best judges of treatment methods.
Other metropolitan water system general managers agree.
“For some water systems, adopting alternatives to gaseous chlorine may make sense,” said Chips Barry, Denver Water’s manager and CEO. “But for many others, the alternatives have too many drawbacks.”
“We have made decisions about our water treatment approach based on water chemistry, weather patterns, and needs of the community,” said Las Vegas Valley Water District General Manager Patricia Mulroy. “It is inappropriate for federal agencies to upend these decisions and possibly put consumers at risk.”
According to AMWA, changing disinfectants has had significant and unintended consequences for consumers, because of the chemistry of particular utilities’ source water. A federal official who is focused on security may overlook, or fail to understand, these problems.
“We at LADWP are dedicated to the safety and security of any and all chemicals we use for treating water,” said James McDaniel, assistant general manager at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “We believe that treatment decisions need to be left to the discretion of local utilities working in conjunction with their public health agencies.”
Other water systems, such as Phoenix Water Services Department and El Paso Water Utilities, also believe that it would be inappropriate for Washington, D.C. to reverse local decisions and squander security investments.
AMWA and its members plan to work with Congress to ensure that legislation recognizes the expertise of local water systems by not overriding their treatment approaches.
A copy of AMWA’s testimony is available
here.
