As part of ongoing efforts to pass legislation to allow drinking water systems to share their annual consumer confidence reports (CCRs) via the Internet rather than the postal mail, AMWA is asking its member utilities to complete a short survey that aims to identify the CCR printing and mailing costs incurred by utilities in 2012.
Data from the survey, available online athttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/AMWA_CCR2012, will be used to support AMWA’s advocacy in favor of the “End Unnecessary Mailers Act” (H.R. 1340/S. 1578). That legislation, first introduced in Congress in 2011, would allow drinking water systems to post annual CCRs online rather than mailing hard copies to each customer, as long as the utility makes a hard copy report available to customers upon request.
The bills have attracted bipartisan support in Congress, and their sponsors have told AMWA that they will watch for opportunities to attach the proposal to other moving legislation in the coming months. But the proposal is still opposed by some leading congressional Democrats who would prefer that water systems only withhold mailed CCRs from customers who specifically request removal from the mailing list. But this approach, AMWA members have said, would add new administrative burdens to utilities and would likely not result in meaningful cost savings.
If you have any questions about the CCR survey or the legislation, please contact AMWA’s Dan Hartnett at [email protected].