Congress in 1974 had officially passed “The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974” otherwise known as SDWA. According to the Environmental Protection Agency this act was designed “to protect public health by regulating the nation’s public drinking water supply.” (United States Environmental Protection Agency) The law has now been amended two times since being signed by President Ford once in 1986 as well as in 1996. The act now has multiple requirements to protect not only the drinking water we consume but its reservoirs such as lakes and rivers. (United States Environmental Protection Agency) This act was intended to address the absence of national regulation for drinking water in the United States. Preceding this law, individual states were in charge of enforcing and establishing regulations …show more content…
For example, a research study done by the American Association for Cancer Research ascertained that the testing of the water did not include chemical contaminants only microbiological. (Theiss, Stoner, and Shimkin) Because of this certain chemical containments in the water were correlated to pulmonary tumors in the lungs of mice. (Theiss, Stoner, and Shimkin) Moreover, studies conduct by the Community Water Supply Survey revealed that 56% of the nation's public water had physical insufficiencies which undeviatingly affected human health. (Pennsylvania State University) Additionally 69% of the public water examinations “failed to test half the number of basic microbiological samples recommended by the Public Health Service.” (Pennsylvania State University) In acknowledgment to the mounting concerns for safe drinking water, President Nixon proposed The Safe Drinking Water Act which was later signed into law by President Ford in 1974. The overall role for this new act was to give the federal government oversight of the nations’ drinking