een 1971 and 1985, 111,228 cases of waterborne diseases were reported, a significant increase since 1920 (5:33). In addition, since 1974, more thin 2,100 different contaminants have been found in public-water systems. "By 1986, EPA had set standards for only twenty-two of them" (5:33).
The states have not done much better. Records show that in 1987, 21 states took no enforcement action against violators of the Safe Drinking Water Act, despite the fact that there were more than 100,000 violations affecting forty million Americans (5:80). It is apparent that the cleanup program mandated are not working. Many blame it on the price tag necessary to do the job.
In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act which authorized the EPA to set and enforce standards for hazardous substances in drinking water. However, health officials found that treatment technologies created to prevent widespread disease may also be carcinogenic. An example is chlorine which, when combined with organic matter such as leaves, forms an array of substances known as trihalom
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