New Drinking Water Regulations Violate Constitution - CEI Joins Nebraska in Lawsuit Over Arsenic Rules

Press Release
by CEI Staff
October 25, 2002

Washington, D.C., October 25, 2002-The Competitive Enterprise Institute
filed its joint opening brief this week in a legal challenge to the
constitutionality of new federal rules on arsenic in drinking water. The
state of Nebraska and CEI are charging that the new arsenic regulations
proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the federal Safe
Drinking Water Act which authorized them, exceed Congress' authority under
the Commerce Clause.

EPA has changed the standard for arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per
billion to 10 ppb. The new standard will result in significant economic
hardship for many municipalities across the country, forcing them to spend
scarce budget funds on eliminating what are already virtually undetectable
particles without any measurable human health benefit.

"The demands of the new standard are absurd," says Angela Logomasini, CEI's
director of risk and environmental policy. "The science has failed to find
any adverse impacts of arsenic in U.S. drinking water at the 50 parts per
billion level, a standard that has been in place more than 50 years. Many
poor Americans will likely suffer disconnection from their current water
supply to avoid the costly regulations, leaving the public to access water
from substandard sources."

Logomasini says the federal drinking water regulations will
disproportionately affect small municipalities, many in rural areas that
have higher than average - but still safe - background levels of arsenic in
their local water supplies. High compliance costs will mean that many
municipalities will either have to disconnect from their traditional water
supplies or move funds from other health and safety services such as fire
protection, making the entire community less safe.

The text of CEI's court filing is available online.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the
principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information
about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.