Small water districts serving about 15,500 Oregonians could be focus or new fee, inspections SALEM — Under a proposal from state health officials, most public water systems — from small housing developments to bigger cities serving thousands of residents — may have to pay higher monitoring fees to the state.
State health officials are asking for a $1.8 million bump in fees in the state’s next two-year budget to cover costs of monitoring public water systems, an area they say has long been underfunded at a risk to public health and public trust in the safety of drinking water.
Lacking staff to help The state regulates the roughly 900 public water systems that fall between small, private systems with fewer than 10 customers and larger systems subject to more stringent federal Safe Drinking Water Act standards.
"The problem with state-regulated systems is that we don’t have staff to adequately enforce the regulations when a system stops submitting required monitoring data," Modie wrote in an email to the Oregon Capital Bureau.
The state also monitors systems subject to federal Safe Drinking Water Act standards, and inspects those every three or five years; those systems would also face fee increases under the health authority’s proposal.
Sustainable base program Even before the Salem water crisis unfolded in May, the state’s health agency has been saying that the drinking water services program doesn’t have enough money.
The program lost a third of its staff since 2009 due to a lack of money, Emme wrote.
Buckhorn’s system, which serves 11 people, is regulated by the state but isn’t inspected, according to state data.
The agency has already received some additional money for drinking water issues in the current budget.
Withycombe is a reporter for the East Oregonian working for the Oregon Capital Bureau, a collaboration of EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group and Salem Reporter.