Report: Georgia fifth in drinking water violations.
James Capp, chief of the Watershed Protection Branch within the state Environmental Protection Division, noted that Georgia is in the middle of the pack when ranked based on health-based violations.
Statewide, there were about 900 systems with 1,870 violations serving about 3.8 million people, according to the NRDC report.
There are about 2,400 water systems in the state.
“Just because it’s a monitoring and reporting violation does not necessarily mean everything is A-OK,” Wu said.
It just means we don’t know, and your customers don’t know, and you don’t know what’s going on.” The report found that people who live in rural communities could be particularly vulnerable.
Nationwide, small systems that serve 500 or fewer people account for nearly 70 percent of all violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
They should demand that.” Wu urged people to inquire about their water systems.
Proposed federal budget cuts could further hamper the state’s small systems, Wu said.
“The water they’re drinking is safe,” Matthews said.