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Audit applauds
state on drinking
water’s safety

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By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

The state auditor found some flaws in enforcement, but in general gave the state Department of Health high marks for an effective job of ensuring that drinking water throughout the state is safe.

Oversight of the 134 public water systems could be improved by more timely preparation of reports after surveys are done and by systematic follow-up to ensure corrections are made, said the report released yesterday.

The state doesn't have an integrated data management system as recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It also has failed to take advantage of EPA grants that help finance the cost of water system infrastructure, the audit found.

Some faults found appear to reflect budget cuts of recent years. Not until last January when the Safe Drinking Water Branch and the Clean Water Branch funded a deputy attorney general position did the department have ready access to legal assistance.

Also, the sanitary survey program was inactive from 1992 to 1997, in part because of budget restrictions , the audit said.

"The (Safe Drinking Water) branch revived its sanitary survey program in 1997 and appears to be making a good faith effort to complete sanitary surveys of all systems -- both recommended and required -- within a three-year cycle," the report said.

"We found that all 1999 chemical monitoring requirements were satisfied for the 29 systems in our sample." But it found one system, the Mililani water system that serves 34,681 people, collected fewer coliform (microbiological) samples than required by state and federal regulations.

"Although failing to monitor at the required level may not necessarily result in public health problems, conducting the required monitoring is critical to ensure the detection of problems," the report said.

State Health Director Bruce Anderson responded with details of some initiatives under way to comply with the auditor's recommendations. They included:

An EPA workshop on sanitary survey requirements, to be given here in December, will qualify more state staff members to conduct surveys.

Budget requests will be made to establish a data processing systems analyst position for the Safe Drinking Water Branch, and to convert an existing position to quality assurance officer to oversee issues such as security of water samples .

Water system owners will be required to respond to significant deficiencies found in sanitary surveys.

Anderson pointed out that the 2000 Legislature increased the Health Department's ability to assess civil penalties for violation of the safe drinking water standards.