The Nation : Clean Water Bills Advance

House and Senate panels began a broad attack on water pollution, approving bills to require cleaner drinking water and to continue federal support for local sewage and waste-water treatment plants. The actions by the Senate Environment Committee and the House Public Works health subcommittee represented defeats for Reagan Administration budget-cutters and the Environmental Protection Agency. The two panels gave unanimous voice-vote approval to similar bills that would force the EPA to issue standards limiting the levels of about five dozen contaminants now found in tap water.