PREFACE

Throughout this century, the Public Health Service (PHS) has taken a leading role in providing safe drinking water for Americans. The PHS advanced the scientific knowledge needed to implement and promote appropriate technologies by sponsoring the development of breakpoint chlorination, linking the levels of coliform bacteria in water with waterborne disease rates, and demonstrating the diarrheal and parasitic burden experienced by rural households without access to safe water or sanitary facilities. Following passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assumed primary responsibility in the Federal effort to protect the public’s drinking water supply. With EPA establishing and enforcing drinking water standards and funding water projects, the drinking water-related responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the parent agency of the PHS, became fragmented.

In recognition of these departmental responsibilities, the Environmental Health Policy Committee (see Appendix 1), chaired by the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Philip Lee, created a subcommittee to evaluate the HHS role in ensuring safe drinking water. The new Subcommittee on Drinking Water and Health (see Appendix 2) was chaired by Dr. Richard Jackson, Director, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NCEH, CDC), and included representatives from HHS and other Federal departments. This report is a summary of the consensus of discussions at the subcommittee’s six meetings between March 1995 and January 1996.

The plan of action that concludes this report was crafted by the subcommittee’s agency representatives. This report and the discussions from which it came will enable HHS to play an effective and engaged role in the evolution of safe drinking water protection in the coming years.