The Safe Drinking
Water Act (SDWA)
SDWA is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water.
SDWA gives the US Environmental Protection Agency the authority to set national standards to protect against both naturally occurring and man-made contaminants that may be found in drinking water.
This act does not regulate private wells that serve fewer than 25 individuals.
Water Quality
The two most common ways of getting a waterborne disease is either through drinking water or recreational water, such as swimming pools, spas, hot tubs, hot springs, lakes and streams.
The NM Department of Health and NM Environment Department work together to protect the public from waterborne diseases by examining waterborne disease and drinking water standards in the state in order to assess the safety of New Mexico’s public drinking water system.
Each week, NMDOH looks at all the following reported diseases and organisms, which are potentially waterborne, in an effort to help ensure the safety of New Mexico's public drinking water.
These diseases can also be passed through food or from person-to-person contact. Careful monitoring ensures the infections are not related to public water systems. To date, no actual infectious waterborne disease outbreaks related to public drinking water systems have been detected. Of course, the Health and Environment departments remain vigilant for any potential incidents, and monitor those areas with water systems that have had problems meeting federal drinking water quality standards.
In addition our biomonitoring program looks at arsenic and heavy metals in urine and drinking water. Please contact us if you have questions about the safety of drinking water.
The New Mexico Department of Health also investigates recreational water issues such as swimmer's itch and blue-green algae to prevent disease outbreaks.