Reports & Consumer Guides In The Drink: North Carolina In 1993
and 1994, more than 53 million Americans drank water that did
not meet Safe Drinking Water Act standards. In The Drink is the
first analysis of EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act compliance
database to document these violations of tap water health
standards on a community-by-community basis. Widespread failure
to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act is a symptom of
increasing problems with drinking water quality in the United
States. Drinking water plants are old and out of date, and water
supplies are increasingly at risk from chemical and biological
contamination. North Carolina is not immune from these problems;
many cities and towns -- both large and small -- experienced
violations or exceedances of EPA standards in the last year.
These included violations of Maximum Contaminant Levels, (EPA's
enforceable standards for chemical and biological contaminants),
exceedances of the Lead Action Level, and violations of the
Surface Water Treatment Rule