Washington rushes to correct environmental problems with all the speed and agility of a glacier on quaaludes. During the 1980s the legislative glacier ground to a halt as the Reagan administration systematically eliminated funding for drinking water research and the EPA refused to issue new regulations. In 1986 Congress ordered the EPA to issue an array of new tap water regulations, but the EPA simply did nothing until an alliance of citizens' groups took them to court. The agency fi nally buckled under a court order and issued new rules in the early nineties. In 1992 the arrival of new administration brought hope that the process would again move forward, but treatment plants are expensive, and the drinking water industry resisted. Then came Milwaukee.