ABSTRACT
The purpose of the Safe Drinking Water Act is to ensure that the public water supply systems meet national standards for the protection of public health. A subsequent proviso permits such federal funding for federal programs only if the plan or design of the project ensures that the aquifer will not be contaminated. The Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate regulations restricting the concentration of such substances in drinking water. The EPA believes that the setting of maximum contaminant levels for sodium and sulfates would have been inappropriate, since individual response to their presence in drinking water varies over a broad continuum. Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in response to increasing indications of a serious threat to health from contaminants in drinking water not related to communicable disease. During the pendency of the litigation, information bearing upon the problem of organic contaminants in drinking water has continued to accumulate.
