The Legislature finds and declares that it is a paramount policy of the State to protect the purity of the water we drink and that the Department of Environmental Protection shall be empowered to promulgate and enforce regulations to purify drinking water by filtration or such other treatment method as it may require, prior to the distribution of said drinking water to the public; that the maintenance of high-quality potable water is essential in order to safeguard the health and welfare of the people of the State; that the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act provides a comprehensive framework, at a minimum, for establishing standards, providing technical assistance, and for regulating the collection, treatment, monitoring, storage, and distribution of potable water, and for consolidating and improving existing State law regarding potable water; and that it is in the best interests of the people of the State for the State, through its Department of Environmental Protection, to assume primary enforcement responsibility under the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

L.1977, c. 224, s. 2, eff. Sept. 17, 1977. Amended by L.1983, c. 443, s. 12, eff. Jan. 9, 1984.