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EPA to Hold Public Meetings in Lexington and Bowling Green, Kentucky Regarding "Full Disclosure" Reports on Drinking Water

Release Date: 03/11/1999
Contact Information: Carl Terry, EPA Press and Media Relations, 404-562-8325

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water will hold a public meeting on Sunday, March 14, 1999 in Lexington, KY and on Monday, March 15, 1999 in Bowling Green, KY regarding a new Federal rule that requires community water systems to report annually to consumers on the source and quality of their drinking water.

The Lexington meeting will begin at 2:00 p.m. at the University of Kentucky, E.S. Good Barn, off Nicholasville Rd., near Commonwealth Stadium. The Bowling Green meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Western Kentucky University Conference Center, South Campus, 2355 Nashville Road.

EPA and Kentucky officials will provide information concerning the required reports and how to interpret them. They also will discuss the Source Water Assessment Program, under which all states are developing detailed plans to analyze existing and potential threats to the quality of underground and surface water supplies.

Under the new regulation, community water systems, nearly 55,000 serving some 253 million persons in the U.S., are required to provide customers with the first of what are to be annual Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs) no later than October 19, 1999. These reports, which may be distributed by many systems as billing inserts, will give consumers an unprecedented accounting of the source of their drinking water, its susceptibility to contamination, and potential health effects of any contaminants detected.

The required "full disclosure" through the CCRs is a product of the Citizens Right-To-Know Act, which in 1976 amended and reauthorized the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, now in its 25th year.