This year marks the 50th anniversary of the National Rural Water Association (NRWA). NRWA's Articles of Incorporation were signed on March 3rd, 1976, marking the official start of our great organization, whose goal was to fund and provide resources to assist rural and small communities.
Just two years earlier, in 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to protect public water supplies from harmful contaminants. This law gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discretionary authority to regulate drinking water contaminants and to promulgate "national interim primary drinking water regulations." As a result of this legislation, in 1975, the EPA set the first 18 interim drinking water standards, which subsequently grew to 23 contaminants.