Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology ( IF 4.5 ) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 , DOI: 10.1038/s41370-024-00645-2 Katlyn Schmitt , Darya Minovi , Sophie Loeb , Mary H. Ward
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Background
While the Safe Drinking Water Act allows states and localities to adopt stronger protections for drinking water, state and local requirements concerning private drinking water wells vary dramatically and often do not provide necessary protections for residents who rely on well water.
Objective
This paper inventories ten types of policies including laws, regulations, programs, and activities that states have adopted or partaken in to encourage safe drinking water for residential well owners.
Methods
To identify categories of private well protections, we conducted a preliminary internet search with key search terms to create an initial list of 10 categories of laws, regulations, programs, and activities (collectively referred to as “policies”) that states have taken to protect residential well water quality. To have a private well safety category present, the law, regulation, program, or activity must fit within the scope of the ten classifications. To limit the breadth of our search, we excluded local and county protections, as well as activities by non-governmental organizations. We also excluded basic construction standards for new wells and licensing standards for well drillers, both of which are covered under a previous study. We conducted an additional internet search to complete a comprehensive review of each state and category and to validate our previous findings. In addition to this internet search, we completed phone and email outreach to the state agencies implementing the well safety categories identified in our internet search to confirm our results.
Results
The results indicate a wide range of state-based well water protections. The number of residential well water protections present in each state ranged from 8 policies in Iowa, Kentucky, and Maine to 1 policy in Oklahoma, with a median of 5 policies across the 50 states.
Impact
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This paper examines protections that states have implemented to safeguard residential well water quality and to protect the health of people who rely on well water. This research reviews state-level regulations, laws, and programs, as opposed to local, municipal, county-level, or quasi-governmental protections for residential well owners. Residential well policies were examined across ten categories. Without any protections at the federal level, this research reveals gaps in state regulation and demonstrates the need for broader adoption of comprehensive state-level policies to better protect residential well owners from drinking water contaminants and their associated public health impacts.
中文翻译：
各州保护私人油井用户政策的比较
背景
虽然《安全饮用水法》允许各州和地方对饮用水采取更强有力的保护，但各州和地方对私人饮用水井的要求差异很大，而且往往无法为依赖井水的居民提供必要的保护。
客观的
本文列举了各州为鼓励住宅井主安全饮用水而采取或参与的十种政策，包括法律、法规、计划和活动。
方法
为了确定私人水井保护的类别，我们使用关键搜索词进行了初步互联网搜索，创建了各州为保护私人水井保护而采取的 10 类法律、法规、计划和活动（统称为“政策”）的初步列表。住宅井水质。要存在私人井安全类别，法律、法规、计划或活动必须符合十个分类的范围。为了限制我们搜索的广度，我们排除了地方和县的保护以及非政府组织的活动。我们还排除了新井的基本建设标准和钻井者的许可标准，这两者都包含在之前的研究中。我们进行了额外的互联网搜索，以完成对每个州和类别的全面审查，并验证我们之前的发现。除了互联网搜索之外，我们还通过电话和电子邮件联系了执行互联网搜索中确定的油井安全类别的国家机构，以确认我们的结果。
结果
结果表明，各州开展了广泛的井水保护工作。每个州的住宅井水保护政策数量从爱荷华州、肯塔基州和缅因州的 8 项政策到俄克拉荷马州的 1 项政策不等，50 个州的中位数为 5 项政策。
影响
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本文探讨了各州为保障住宅井水质量和保护依赖井水的人们的健康而实施的保护措施。这项研究审查了州级法规、法律和计划，而不是地方、市、县级或准政府对住宅井所有者的保护。对住宅水井政策进行了十个类别的审查。在联邦层面没有任何保护的情况下，这项研究揭示了州监管的差距，并表明需要更广泛地采用全面的州级政策，以更好地保护住宅水井所有者免受饮用水污染物及其相关公共卫生影响。
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