作者介绍了许多小型系统共享的四个一般困难领域:通信、资源、价格合理、可用的专业知识和消费者信誉。伊利诺伊州试图解决第一个问题，努力与小型系统管理员沟通，以确保他们理解法规；该州还向立法者和监管机构提供反馈。作者认为，消费者应该更积极地参与这一过程，并概述了一个有效的沟通计划应该在健康影响和成本方面向消费者告知拟议法规的内容。关于财政资源，EPA的合规成本是基于大型系统，这使得小型系统的数据人为偏低。伊利诺伊州简化了对联邦法规的接受，以降低成本，制定了支付州采样的年费，并对私人承包商的总水管安装或扩建收取费用。 为了服务于小型系统，国家设立了金融机构，可以提供贷款、风险基金、工业收入债券，并为员工收购提供帮助。为了帮助具有负担得起的专业知识的小型系统，国家雇佣退休供水运营商提供技术援助；该计划实施期间，自愿遵守的情况有所增加，但资金后来被转移到了执法工作中。

The author presents four general areas of difficulty many small systems share: communications, resources, affordable, available expertise and consumer credibility. The state of Illinois has tried to tackle the first problem with an effort to communicate to small system custodians, to be sure that they understand regulations; the state also offers feedback to legislators and regulators. The author believes that the consumer should be more active in this process, and outlines what an effective communication program should tell the consumers about proposed regulations in terms of health effects and cost. Regarding financial resources, the EPA costs of compliance are based on large systems, which makes the figures artificially low for small systems. The state of Illinois has streamlined acceptance of federal regulations to cut costs, instituted annual fees to pay for state sampling, and imposed fees for private contractor water main installation or expansion. To serve small systems, the state has established financing agencies, which can provide loans, venture funds, industrial revenue bonds, and assistance for employee buyouts. To help small systems with affordable expertise, the state hired retired water supply operators to provide technical assistance; voluntary compliance increased while the program was in place, but the funds were shifted to enforcement efforts later.