The Agency is promulgating regulations to revise the existing regulations regarding Safe Drinking Water Act variances and exemptions. These revisions are based on the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments. In addition to revising the existing language regarding variances and exemptions, the rule includes procedures and conditions under which a primacy State/Tribe or the EPA Administrator may issue small system variances to public water systems serving less than 10,000 persons. This rule-making is intended to provide regulatory relief to all public water systems, particularly small systems.