Inquiry Targets EPA’s Stance on Water Purity

The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is investigating whether the agency is deliberately misleading the public by overstating the purity of the nation’s drinking water, according to EPA officials and agency documents.

The inquiry was launched shortly before the release of a report that stated that “94% of the population served by community water systems were served by systems that met all health-based standards.”

Internal documents, however, show that EPA audits for at least five years have suggested that the percentage of the population with safe drinking water is much lower -- 79% to 84% in 2002.