The Federal Ground‐Water Protection Program — Today's Hopea

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe necessary administrative mechanisms for protection of our underground drinking water sources, and coordination of natural resource and energy development and environmental quality programs, should be provided by a federal ground‐water control program, else today's underground contaminant disposal activities will be tomorrow's undoing. Federal regulations, however, must provide flexibility to States and industry to find the least costly means of meeting national environmental goals.A growing body of literature clearly documents cases of underground drinking water source contamination, sometimes severe, from a large variety of conditions and practices. Existing studies also indicate that this problem is pervasive: aquifers have been adversely affected in every region of the country.A federal ground‐water protection program which (1) reflects consideration of total long‐range natural resource protection and environmental quality benefits, (2) regulates in a manner so that the benefits to the environment generally exceed the regulatory costs and (3) encourages more efficient ways of meeting environmental goals in the least costly manner can and must be developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Without an effective Federal ground‐water protection program, the underground contamination problem will likely worsen.