Senators last week responded to the recent West Virginia chemical spill with legislation that would add a new chemical storage facility oversight program to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the “Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act” (S. 1961) would require regular state inspections of any chemical storage facility that “poses a risk of harm” to a nearby public water system. Chemical facility owners would have to meet minimum leak detection, spill control and employee training standards, and would have to complete emergency response plans.
The legislation would not impose any new requirements on community water systems, but chemical storage facilities would have to provide information to nearby water utilities about the “potential toxicity” of each chemical held on-site, and “safeguards or other precautions … to detect, mitigate, or otherwise limit the adverse effects” of a chemical release. The legislation would not address potential liability issues that could arise for community water systems that are made aware of this information, nor would it actually require chemical facilities to notify downstream utilities when a spill occurs.
Other parts of the legislation would allow states and EPA (but not individual communities or water systems) to recover costs incurred when responding to chemical release emergencies and enable water systems to seek restraining orders or injunctions under SDWA against a chemical facility that presents “an imminent and substantial endangerment” to the water system. Utilities would also be able to petition EPA to take such actions.
The Senate Water and Wildlife Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on the West Virginia spill. AMWA is working with the American Water Works Association on a letter to be submitted for the hearing record that will discuss broad objectives for chemical spill response legislation.