Tougher water rules called costly

Thursday, March 29, 2001 | 11:39 a.m.

Stricter federal regulations to keep drinking water safe and clean in Western states such as Nevada will require federal funding, a state water official said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

New limits proposed on polluted surface water and other threats such as arsenic will cost 126 water delivery systems in rural Nevada millions of dollars that small towns such as Fallon do not have, Allen Biaggi, administrator of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, said.

Biaggi said that stricter requirements of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act could trigger a financial crisis in rapidly growing states.

In the next few years small water systems as well as metropolitan ones will be required to control runoff and shallow ground water that could contaminate drinking supplies.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's water panel listened to Biaggi and other state representatives in the wake of President Bush's order delaying last-minute Clinton administration rules and regulations.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman said last week that the agency will suspend the 10 parts per billion limit on arsenic in drinking water for scientific review.

Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno, has 100 parts per billion of naturally occurring arsenic in its drinking water.

Senate panel members agreed with Whitman that public health benefits should be weighed against the cost of meeting the stricter standards.

If the level of arsenic, as an example, is raised, that would save many of Nevada's smaller communities millions of dollars, Biaggi said, although he did not know how many rural areas would benefit.