What is Source Water Assessment?
Safe drinking water is vital to the public and economic health of a community. An essential part of providing safe drinking water to a community is protection of the drinking water source. Protection of drinking water supplies is not limited to the reservoir or section of river that the drinking water is “pulled” from, but includes the entire watershed that catches rainfall and collects it in interconnected streams and lakes. Everything the rainfall passes over, under, and through may potentially end up in the drinking water supply. The drinking water source watershed may be within the community's county, but more than likely, the source watershed will extend well beyond county boundaries, creating interesting technical and political puzzles.
In the past, the main focus of safe drinking water has been on treatment, and very little, if any energy has been put toward the prevention of contamination. Since the passage of the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, attention to the prevention of source water contamination has increased. Cleaner source water costs less to treat, decreases the chances of disease outbreak or toxic exposure, and is just good common sense.
The goal of source water protection is to prevent pollution from reaching the source water. However, before the source water can be protected, the potential sources of pollution need to be identified. A Source Water Assessment is conducted to identify potential pollutants of concern, analyze the risk to public health, and provide data and analyses for creation of a Source Water Protection Plan. A Source Water Assessment couples cartography with hydrologic analysis to locate the pollutants that are present, and to discern the likelihood of human exposure. Source water protection is a proactive effort to protect drinking water sources before they become contaminated.
SWAP Projects: