Nearly 90 percent of all violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act are not reported in the government database that is made available to citizens and that triggers legal action when there are problems, according to a new audit by the EPA. Violations range from missed water quality tests to contamination problems. Most of the unlisted violations are the fault of the states, which don’t report them, the audit found; states have the primary responsibility for enforcing water safety rules. The EPA and state enviro agencies say that at least 85 percent of Americans are drinking water that’s among the world’s safest. But those public water systems that serve the other 15 percent face little threat of punishment.
