Safe Drinking Water Act Implementation.—

Sec. 519. Safe Drinking Water Act Implementation.— (a) Safe Drinking Water Act Report.—The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall report to the Congress within nine months of the date of enactment of this section recommendations concerning the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Such report shall address— (1) the adverse health effects associated with contaminants in drinking water and the public health and other benefits that may be realized by removing such contaminants; (2) the process for identifying contaminants in drinking water and selecting contaminants for control; (3) schedules for the development of regulations and compliance with drinking water standards; (4) the financial and technical capacity of drinking water systems to implement monitoring requirements associated with regulated and unregulated contaminants and options to facilitate implementation of such requirements, with special emphasis on small communities; (5) the financial and technical capacity of drinking water systems to install treatment facilities needed to assure compliance with drinking water standards and options to facilitate compliance with such standards, with special emphasis on small communities; (6) the financial and technical capacity of States to implement the drinking water program, including options for increasing funding of State programs; and (7) innovative and alternative methods to increase the financial and technical capacity of drinking water systems and the States to assure effective implementation of such Act. (b) Moratorium and Report on Radionuclides in Drinking Water.—(1) The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall conduct a risk assessment of radon considering: (A) the risk of adverse human health effects associated with exposure to various pathways of radon; (B) the costs of controlling or mitigating exposure to radon; and (C) the costs for radon control or mitigation experienced by households and communities, including the costs experienced by small communities as the result of such regulation. Such an evaluation shall consider the risks posed by the treatment or disposal of any wastes produced by water treatment. The Science Advisory Board shall review the Agency’s study and submit a recommendation to the Administrator on its findings. The Administrator shall report the Administrator’s findings and the Science Advisory Board recommendation to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Not later than July 31, 1993, the Administrator shall publish the Administrator’s study and risk assessment and the Science Advisory Board recommendation. (2) The Administrator is directed, if additional time is required to establish the radon standard, to seek an extension of the deadline 106 STAT. 1619contained in the judicially-imposed consent decree for promulgation of the radon standard to a date not later than October 1, 1993. (c) Small System Monitoring Cost Reduction.—With respect to monitoring requirements for organic chemicals, pesticides, PCBs, or unregulated contaminants promulgated in January 1991 (known as the Phase II rule), the Administrator or a primacy State may modify such requirements to provide that any drinking water system serving a population of less than 3,300 persons shall not be required to conduct additional quarterly monitoring for a specific contaminant or contaminants prior to October 1, 1993, if monitoring for any one quarter conducted after the date of enactment of this subsection and prior to October 1, 1993 for any such contaminant or contaminants fails to detect the presence of such contaminant or contaminants in the water supplied by the drinking water system. This Act may be cited as the “Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993”.