71-5302. Drinking water and monitoring standards; harmful materials; how determined; applicability; priority system.

(1) The director shall adopt and promulgate necessary minimum drinking water standards, in the form of rules and regulations, to insure that drinking water supplied to consumers through all public water systems shall not contain amounts of chemical, radiological, physical, or bacteriological material determined by the director to be harmful to human health.

(2) The director may adopt and promulgate rules and regulations to require the monitoring of drinking water supplied to consumers through public water systems for chemical, radiological, physical, or bacteriological material determined by the director to be potentially harmful to human health.

(3) In determining what materials are harmful or potentially harmful to human health and in setting maximum levels for such harmful materials, the director shall be guided by:

(a) General knowledge of the medical profession and related scientific fields as to materials and substances which are harmful to humans if ingested through drinking water; and

(b) General knowledge of the medical profession and related scientific fields as to the maximum amounts of such harmful materials which may be ingested by human beings, over varying lengths of time, without resultant adverse effects on health.

(4) Subject to section 71-5310, state drinking water standards shall apply to each public water system in the state, except that such standards shall not apply to a public water system:

(a) Which consists only of distribution and storage facilities and does not have any collection and treatment facilities;

(b) Which obtains all of its water from, but is not owned or operated by, a public water system to which such standards apply;

(c) Which does not sell water to any person; and

(d) Which is not a carrier which conveys passengers in interstate commerce.

(5) The director may adopt alternative monitoring requirements for public water systems in accordance with section 1418 of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, as such section existed on May 22, 2001.

(6) The director may adopt a system for the ranking of safe drinking water projects with known needs or for which loan applications have been received by the director or the Department of Environment and Energy. In establishing the ranking system the director shall consider, among other things, the risk to human health, compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, as the act existed on May 22, 2001, and assistance to systems most in need based upon affordability criteria adopted by the director. This priority system shall be reviewed annually by the director.

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