A new bill would help rural Americans get clean drinking water. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Senators Tammy Baldwin and Susan Collins introduced the bipartisan Healthy Drinking Water Affordability Act, or The Healthy H2O Act. Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat and Collins, a Maine Republican, say the bill will provide water testing and treatment technology grants directly to individuals and non-profits in rural communities.
Currently, nearly 43 million households, primarily in rural communities, rely exclusively on groundwater delivered through private wells for their drinking water. These sources are not subject to the same oversight and testing for contamination of public water sources. Water quality improvement systems installed at the faucet or within a building can provide immediate and ongoing protection from known and emerging water contaminants, like PFAS, lead and nitrates.
The bill follows a proposal to create standards for PFAS chemicals in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency. The legislation would allow the Department of Agriculture to provide grants for testing and removing contaminants from drinking water.
The full text of this legislation is available here. A one-pager on this legislation is available here.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land Of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.