ABSTRACT
Thanks to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the water that runs from the tap in our homes, schools, and places of business is among the cleanest water in the world. The SDWA requires public water systems, de„ned as those systems that provide piped drinking water to at least 25 persons or 15 service connections for at least 60 days per year, to test the drinking water for a variety of contaminants on at least an annual basis (see Chapter 2). The water must be tested for various chemical, biological, and even nuclear contaminants, as well as physical properties, such as color, temperature, and hardness. Smaller drinking water systems may be regulated under state and local laws.
