The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public comments on its effort to produce a document to survey community water systems (CWSs) that are eligible for allocations under the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRF), and use the data collected to gauge the capital improvement needs of CWSs over the next 20-years.

In a Federal Register notice issued Dec. 13, 2024, the EPA announced it is developing the 8th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA), and plans to submit an information collection request (ICR) on the DWINSA to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the EPA says.

However, before submitting the ICR to OMB, the EPA is accepting public comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection, with the deadline to file comments set for Feb. 11, 2025.

The EPA says the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water is conducting the latest DWINSA, which will solicit information from drinking water systems in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Furthermore, the DWINSA will survey large drinking CWSs, which are those that serve over 100,000 persons, and medium CWSs, which are those serving between 3,301 and 100,000 persons, EPA says. 

However, EPA says the DWINSA will not directly collect data from small CWSs, which are those serving populations of 3,300 and fewer persons; and non-profit non-CWS, or American Indian or Alaska Native Village drinking water systems, except for potential operation and maintenance supplemental questions for tribal systems only.

The data collected by the 8th DWINSA will be used to estimate the capital improvement needs for those water systems through their submission of project information and supporting documentation, and by cost adjusting the needs estimates from the 7th DWINSA—which was issued April 4, 2023—to reduce the burden on those previous survey respondents, the EPA says.

Furthermore, EPA says the ICR will include supplemental questions on identifying potential barriers to accessing DWSRF funding. In addition, the agency is considering including supplemental questions in the DWINSA that target a statistical sample of tribal systems on the operation and maintenance needs of those systems, so EPA is seeking feedback on considerations for this approach, and on potential questions to ask.

EPA adds it seeks comments and information that will enable it to:

• Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of EPA functions, including whether the information will have practical utility.
• Evaluate the accuracy of EPA’s estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used.
• Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.
• Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate forms of information technology.
• Solicit feedback on alternative suggestions for collecting lead service line information to reduce burden and obtain best quality information, including potentially using lead and copper rule revisions service line inventory information.
• Solicit feedback on whether and what questions to ask tribal systems regarding operation and maintenance needs.
• Solicit feedback on what questions to ask about potential barriers to accessing DWSRF funding.

EPA says it will consider all the comments received and, if appropriate, amend the ICR for the DWINSA. Furthermore, when the final ICR package is submitted to OMB for review and approval, EPA says it will issue another Federal Register notice announcing the ICR submission to OMB, and provide another opportunity to submit additional comments to OMB.

Respondents who submit comments to this announcement need to include the docket ID number: EPAHQ–OW–2024–0561 in their missive.

Comments can be submitted online using regulations.gov.

Or by email using the email address: OWDocket@epa.gov,

Or by the U.S. Postal Service using the address: EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20460.

EPA says its policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information claimed to be confidential business information, or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.

Click here to read the Federal Register notice.