EDITORIAL
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Approaching regionalization reasonably The provision of safe drinking water in the U.S. is not guaranteed by the passage of P.L. 93-523 any more than the elimination of pollutant discharge is guaranteed by P.L. 92500. Technical problems are many in implementing the requirements of drinking water legislation. The problems range from incomplete scientific data on contaminants with unknown health effects to differences in opinion regarding how much water is consumed daily by average users. Add to this the ambiguities involved with defining "best available, and practicable technology" for pollution control, cost/benefit estimates and manpower requirements for monitoring, and enforcement in 50 separate states. Anyone can add other items to this list of uncertainties and reach the sad conclusion that none of them is self-resolving. Even if all the scientific numbers and engineering techniques were known with precision we might still face problems because of EPA's separation of water supply and pollution control activities and our own infatuation with local governmental control. In this issue Professor Daniel Okun shares with us his familiarity with British regional water authorities and raises the knotty question of regionalization, an approach that argues against the implementation of unshakably uniform standards and more equitably attaches cost to benefit. The present trend established in the U.S. is unmistakably toward a fragmented national water service and proliferation of smaller supplies. With uniform treatment requirements for pollution control we will bear higher than necessary social costs. Why aren't we considering regionalization more seriously? Sections of P.L. 92-500 provide for regional planning but do not integrate waste treatment with water resources planning. The word "regionalization" does not even appear in P.L. 93523. Professor Okun's feature article suggests fundamental revisions in our approach, revisions that are well worth the serious consideration of state agencies and of EPA.
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