Tribal Water Systems Lack EPA Oversight, Report Finds

Although tribal drinking water supplies are meeting regulatory requirements, some internal control deficiencies exist in administering U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversight of tribal community water systems (CWSs), according to “EPA Assisting Tribal Water Systems but Needs to Improve Oversight,” an evaluation report issued by the agency last week.

The report found that internal control deficiencies exist in administering EPA oversight of tribal CWSs in two of the five EPA regions. Tribal drinking water records in four of the five regions were incomplete due to failure to maintain oversight of system operations and/or poor records management.

The EPA made several recommendations in the report, including establishing national and regional tribal drinking water program standard operating procedures and directing regions to issue monitoring and reporting violations and take appropriate enforcement actions against tribal CWSs with health-based violations or that fail to monitor or submit monitoring reports.