Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today reintroduced H.R. 4798, the Small Community Options for Regulatory Equity Act, which provides relief to small Idaho communities from onerous and unnecessary federal regulations. The measure is similar to legislation Simpson and then-Congressman C.L. “Butch” Otter first introduced in the 108th Congress. Simpson is hopeful Congress will be inclined to reconsider the bill because of the severe impact federal regulations have had on small communities since it was last introduced.

“We’re not talking here about trying to reduce arsenic from 100 parts per billion to ten, we’re talking about communities having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce it by two parts per billion. It should be up to rural communities to determine if twelve parts per billion is acceptable for their drinking water, or if they should tax people out of their homes in order to try to obtain EPA’s arsenic standard of ten parts per billion,” said Simpson. “Nobody cares more about the safety of a community’s drinking water, or is more eager to do the right thing to protect it, than the people who live, work and raise families there.” 

The Small Community Options for Regulatory Equity Act enables communities with populations under 10,000 to opt out of the EPA’s new Safe Drinking Water Act standards for arsenic – which occurs naturally in many water systems in the West, at levels above what the agency considers safe – if they determine the cost to citizens exceeds the potential benefit.

In January 2006, EPA required all drinking water systems to reduce arsenic levels from the previous standard of 50 parts per billion to no more than 10 parts per billion. In many small communities where arsenic levels range between nine and twelve parts per billion, complying with EPA’s regulations threatens to impose an impossible financial burden on residents who face no discernible health threat. H.R. 4798 restores the kind of flexibility that Congress wrote into the Safe Drinking Water Act, but which the EPA has chosen to ignore. The agency’s unwillingness to consider local conditions and single-minded commitment to a one-size-fits-all solution is contrary to Idaho’s interest in educating and assisting citizens rather than proscribing actions and punishing non-compliance.

“Layer upon layer of federal regulations and mandates are slowing our economic recovery and putting our small, rural communities in the position of either raising local taxes or begging for help – from the federal government!” Governor Otter said. “That’s why more than half of the federal stimulus money that Idaho received is being used for meeting federal mandates. And it’s why Congressman Simpson’s bill is so badly needed. It shouldn’t be the government’s business to rob citizens or communities of their self-determination.”

“All across rural America, small communities are struggling with how to pay for federal regulations that simply don’t make any sense,” said Congressman Simpson, Ranking Member of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the EPA. “In the case of arsenic, dozens of Idaho water systems are facing millions in compliance costs and severe penalties unless they reduce naturally occurring arsenic levels to an arbitrary, unnecessary number. The federal government’s command-and-control regulatory structure is unresponsive to the concerns of rural communities and that is why this legislation is so desperately needed.”