Water quality in the US is governed and safeguarded by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), a federal law passed in the 1970. According to this act, every public water supplier has to provide their customers with an annual water quality report that provides detailed information on the following:
- Drinking water quality - this varies from one state to another and depends to a large extent on the quality of the source water and the degree of treatment it receives.
- Source water quality - most American homes receive their water from surface water sources e.g. lakes, rivers and reservoirs. River water quality and indeed lake water quality are hard to determine without the help of the annual report though.
- Contaminants found in the water and those that are removed during the treatment processes.
In addition to this information, each annual water quality report has to mention what water quality testing procedures are performed on the drinking water. This is so that you as a customer can see that standards are being met.
The United States have at present very strict standards with regards to the quality of drinking water. You can download a handbook detailing them handbook from the US Environmental Protection Agency website. This handbook lists the rules and regulations that every authority and water supplier needs to abide by when providing drinking water.
By putting water quality standards in place, the SDWA protects your water supply from most naturally occurring and man-made contaminants, plus it implements minimum quality standards for the nation's drinking water that will ensure continued health. The act governs all 160,000 public water suppliers in the nation, plus a large number of private suppliers as well.
The presence of the SDWA means that you personally shouldn't need to buy a water quality test kit to check the quality of your drinking water. Similarly you won't need to find your water source and test there either. The law is in place so that drinking water quality standards are met regardless of where you live and your area's annual report will prove the standards are being met.
