The Environmental Protection Agency finds that 92% of U.S. community water systems showed no violations of health-based drinking water standards in 1997.  Of the violations that occurred, 85% were violations of monitoring and reporting, not health standards and almost all occurred in systems that serve 3,300 or fewer people.

Since 1996, when the Safe Drinking Water Act was signed into law, the Clinton Administration has used $2.78 billion to fund public water system improvements, EPA said.  The act also provided regulators with stronger enforcement and penalty authorities.

In fiscal 1997, states issued a total of 913 formal enforcement actions including 632 administrative orders without penalty, 220 administrative orders with penalty, 60 civil referrals for judicial action and one criminal referral.  During that period, EPA issued 266 notices of violation, 392 federal administrative orders, 12 complaints for penalty and four civil referrals.