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Source Water Assessment Program

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996 requires states to develop and implement Source Water Assessment Programs (SWAP) to analyze existing and potential threats to the quality of the public drinking water throughout the state.

State programs were due to EPA by February of 1999. State used EPA’s Source Water Assessment and Protection Programs Guidance to developed their programs. The States had a great deal of flexibility in how they designed their program. The new law required states to provide opportunities for the public to guide the decision-making process. States will convene statewide technical and citizen advisory committees, as well as use other means to ensure a broad spectrum of public participation.

EPA has approved 52 SWAP programs. States must complete all the assessments in the state no later than 3 years after EPA approval of the program. A state SWAP includes:

delineating the source water protection area

conducting a contaminant source inventory

determining the susceptibility of the public water supply to contamination from the
inventoried sources

releasing the results of the assessments to the public

States have 3 years from the time of program approval to complete assessments for all public water systems. This date will subsequent to May 2003 for most states.

EPA's fact sheet, Community Involvement in Source Water Assessments, explains the four steps of source water assessments; how communities can participate in the assessment process; and how communities can utilize assessment information for source water protection. A downloadable version (PDF, 180kb) is available.

Check with your state source water contact /state SWAP web page for more information.

Every state has the opportunity to access Federal money (a portion of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund) to accomplish source water assessments and protection efforts. Up to 10% of a State's DWSRF money may be set aside for source water assessment and protection activities. Depending on how your state has decided to spend these Federal funds, there may be money available for local protection efforts. Your state may also set aside funds for continued implementation of the state wellhead protection program, land acquisition and conservation easements, state petition programs, or voluntary incentive-based source water quality protection programs. Financing drinking water protection through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund is also possible.

Source Water Assessment Using Geographic Information Systems: This document provides guidance to states, municipalities, and public water utilities for assessing source waters using geographic information system (GIS) technology.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the Adobe PDF files on this page. See EPA's PDF page for more information about getting and using the free Acrobat Reader.

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