Contact: Regina L. Davis, 202-898-9382, rdavis@naruc.org

NARUC Issues Letter Urging Support for the Voluntary Water Partnership for Distressed Communities Act

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has sent a letter to Senator Thomas Carper (D-Del.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) encouraging their support of the Voluntary Water Partnership for Distressed Communities Act, legislation that will address substandard and distressed water systems across the nation.

Referencing information from the Environmental Protection Agency that ”more than 1,200 community water systems have been in serious noncompliance” with federal drinking water standards for at least three years, the letter states that a continued failure to address these issues creates a risk to the public’s health.

The proposed Act will encourage partnerships to help water systems move toward compliance. NARUC joins other interested parties, such as the National Association of Water Companies, the American Water Works Association, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, in urging Sen. Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, and Sen. Carper, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to introduce legislation for the Act.

Cosigned by NARUC President John Betkoski III and NARUC Water Committee Chair, Commissioner Mary Anna Holden, the letter is available at http://bit.ly/WaterSupportLetter.

###

About NARUC

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.