Welcome to our August issue—we hope all our readers are enjoying the Summer while it lasts. Our two big topics this month are commercial plumbing and water quality, and those subjects intersect in some interesting and important ways.
In this month’s feature, Stephanie Radel discusses how good plumbing system design is every bit as essential to a building’s water quality as the municipal water supply or treatment equipment.
And in what I’m calling an editorial roundtable on commercial plumbing trends, one of the subject matter experts from Sloan mentions how the company has introduced a state regulations and compliance landing page to help installers and specifiers keep up with increasingly complex requirements often related to water quality.
Water quality is one of those thing we take for granted in most of this country—until, of course, people start to get sick and die, like they are currently doing in New York City due to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.
While the origin of the outbreak is not the domestic plumbing systems (cooling towers are seen as the most likely source) it still highlights the need for codes and regulations, backed by sensible legislation, and all informed by the latest research.
As we reported in our July issue (PILC: Advocating for the Health of the Industry), that research has been at risk. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been facing aggressive budget cuts. The NIST plumbing research program is the only federal effort coordinating premise-plumbing research with the private sector.
“We essentially walked away from this kind of work in the 1970s, and we're now paying for it in gaps around water quality, efficiency and the science behind our codes and standards,” Dain Hansen, Executive Vice President, Government Relations at IAPMO said.
Meanwhile, over at the Environmental Protection Agency—the place where legislation becomes regulation—the Trump Administration has enacted a sweeping deregulation agenda. As one example, the EPA announced plans to remove drinking water limits on four types of PFAS (forever chemicals) and delay compliance deadlines for two other compounds.
Since it is federal legislation that underpins the funding and priorities that ultimately affect the quality of our nation’s water, there is a bill currently in Congress worth keeping on your radar.
The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2026 has advanced in both chambers, with the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee unanimously approving H.R. 9497 on July 14, and the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee unanimously approving its version on July 15.
The House version authorizes studies by the Army Corps of Engineers, mostly concerning water infrastructure. The Senate proposal (among other things) reauthorizes drinking water and wastewater infrastructure programs administered by the EPA, including $16.5 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, $14 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $65 million annually for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program.
The Senate version would also reauthorize the Safe Water for Small and Disadvantaged Communities program at $140 million annually, and it would expand funding for public infrastructure security by reauthorizing the Drinking Water Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Program to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities at $25 million annually.
We will follow the progress of the WRDA in future stories. Meanwhile, if this is an issue you feel strongly about, write your Representative or Senator and let them know.
