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Bipartisan legislation introduced by Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Bill Johnson (R-OH), the Community Fire Safety Act, passed the Senate last night by unanimous consent. The bill, H.R. 3588, now heads to the White House to await President Obama’s signature to be made law. H.R. 3588 was approved by the House unanimously on December 2, 2013 by a vote of 384-0. Congressman Tonko began looking into the issue after being contacted by a constituent, alerting the Representative’s office to the problem.

“This commonsense legislation eliminates an unintended consequence of a recent law enacted to enhance public health. I am pleased the Senate was able to move on this legislation and send it to President Obama to be signed into law. No one is getting a steady supply of drinking water from the fire hydrant at the end of their street, so we should not add to the heavy burden our local governments with constrained budgets already experience,” said Tonko.“We can all agree that our water supply and public health should be held to the highest standard, but reasonable fixes must always be considered if it looks like resources are going to be wasted.”

The bill is needed to exempt fire hydrants from being considered a covered product under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Although fire hydrants are not considered a major source of drinking water, the current law would have banned the installation of non-compliant hydrants after January 4, 2014, leaving towns and cities no option to replace hydrants in the event of an emergency. The Community Fire Safety Act corrects the problem and ensures there are no gaps in fire hydrant service.

H.R. 3588 recognizes that hydrants are not intended to be a major source of drinking water and addresses this public safety risk by ensuring that legal hydrants will be readily available for installation and replacement.

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