On August 28, 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft memorandum for comment in the Federal Register in which the agency, proposes lifting the requirement that property owners that resell and submeter water must comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This issue has long been a top concern for many community owners. In an effort to promote water conservation, EPA has proposed that residential property owners, who submeter water that is coming from a regulated public water system (PWS), would no longer be subject to the testing requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) since the regulated PWS is already testing the water.

In past memorandums, EPA stated that any property owner who bills tenants separately for water is “reselling” the water and is therefore by definition a PWS. Subsequently, as a PWS, property owners have been subject to the testing requirements of the SDWA, even when the property owner is providing water coming from a regulated water system that is already required to meet all SDWA safety and testing requirements. The testing requirement can add thousands of dollars to the operating costs of communities.

Although the MHI National Communities Council (NCC) has worked with EPA and Members of Congress on resolving this problem since 1996, the proposed EPA policy change does not specify which types of properties would be included beyond single apartment buildings. The NCC pointed out in its comments to EPA that the act of submetering has no bearing on the safety of the water and that the current policy effectively discourages water conservation. Further, the NCC urged EPA to explicitly include manufactured home communities in the policy change.

The NCC also believes that the past EPA memorandums on this issue expressed a misinterpretation of the original intent of Congress when EPA defined the act of selling water to include the mere billing for water usage even when the water comes from a regulated water system.

The MHI-NCC agreed with EPA’s statement in the Federal Register notice on the proposed policy revision that ‘it makes no sense, as a matter of statutory interpretation, health protection, or SDWA implementation policy, to subject an entity to the full suite of SDWA requirements simply as a result of a decision about who sends a water bill, especially when the water is already coming from a regulated public water system.”

To read the complete comments submitted by the NCC, click here.

NCC members with questions may Sherri Cabrera at (703) 558-0659 or sherri@mfghome or Mike O’Brien at (703) 558-0652 or via email at mobrien@mfghome.org.