AN ACT CONCERNING NOTIFICATION OF CONTAMINANTS IN DRINKING WATER.

This bill requires the public health commissioner, no later than five business days after receiving notice that a public water system violates U. S. Environmental Protection Agency national primary drinking water standards, to notify, either in writing or electronically, the chief elected official of (1) the municipality where the public water system is located and (2) any municipality it serves. The bill does not define public water system, but under the Public Health Code a “public water system” is any water company supplying water to 15 or more consumers or 25 or more people (see BACKGROUND).

*House Amendment “A” replaces the original bill, adding the five business day deadline and eliminating a reference to community and non-community water systems.

National Primary Drinking Water regulations are legally enforceable standards that apply to public water systems. Primary standards limit the levels of contaminants in drinking water.

In addition to the Public Health Code definition (Conn. Agency Regulations § 19-13-B102 (51)), the statutes contain several definitions of public water systems. By law, a public water system variously means a:

1. private, municipal or regional utility supplying water to 15 or more service connections or 25 or more people (CGS § 25-33d);

2. corporation, company, municipality, political subdivision, association, joint stock association, partnership or person, or lessee thereof, owning, maintaining, operating, managing, or controlling any pond, lake, reservoir, or distributing plant employed for the purpose of supplying water for general domestic use in any town, city, or borough, or portion thereof, in the state (CGS § 22a-358); and

3. public water system, as defined for the purposes of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended or superseded (CGS § 22a-475).

Yea

Nay

(03/06/2009)

Yea

Nay

(03/23/2009)