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Source Water Collaborative’s Call to Action Resource Document

Existing and Forthcoming Tools & Opportunities to Improve Drinking Water Source Assessment and Protection

Compared to just a few years ago, we collectively have a host of tools at our disposal that make data/information more accessible, searchable, and relatable. While these tools don’t obviate the challenges involved in protecting drinking water, they offer new opportunities to mobilize necessary information to support key actions. These tools are highlighted in sections below.

1. Update/Improve Source Water Assessments and Protection Plans Source water assessments provide the key foundation for developing and implementing source water protection plans. The source water assessment process includes:

locating sites of actual and potential sources of contamination (using GIS mapping, if possible) upstream of surface water intakes, and within wellhead protection areas for public water systems; and

determining the susceptibility of the drinking water source to contamination.

Accurate data about sources of drinking water (both quality and quantity) and threats to drinking water is critical for supporting actionable steps to prevent and, if necessary, mitigate contamination.

Tool for Identifying Potential Risks:

Drinking Water Mapping Application for Protecting Source Waters (DWMAPS): EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) is developing a new tool to support updates to source water assessment and protection plans. DWMAPS is a web-based mapping tool that will allow users to identify and analyze potential risks to local source water. Features of the map also inform protective actions: for example, one feature of the tool is designed to help users apply the Clean Water Act to protect sources of drinking water. DWMAPS will also offer web services that allow users to import data from DWMAPS into their own GIS platforms. The tool is expected to be available to states and water utilities in mid 2015 and at a later date to the public.

Additional tools include:Now Available: New Tools

Tool Name

Purpose Tool Audience

Location Example

STORET Warehouse for monitoring data. Includes water utility raw/source

State programs, utilities, federal agencies, public

http://www.epa.gov/storet/dbtop.html

Determine in-stream pollutant concentrations downstream of a

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water monitoring data and USGS stream gage data. Can be used for baseline analyses and to show trends in water quality and quantity.

NPDES discharger in your source water protection area.

SPARROW Models and maps for nutrient loading in watersheds across the US.

State programs, utilities, federal agencies, public

http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/sparrow/

Determine the sources, fate, and transport or nitrogen and phosphorus in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

NPDAT Maps of data relevant to nonpoint sources of contamination, including SPARROW and USGS monitoring data.

State programs, utilities, federal agencies, public

http://gispub2.epa.gov/npdat/

Locate watersheds with the highest nutrient loading rates and determine % land use in those watersheds.

Inland Sensitivity Atlas

EPA Region 5 mapping pilot overlaying inland infrastructure with oil pipelines and other vulnerabilities.

State programs, utilities, public

http://www.umrba.org/isa.htm

Map hazardous material sites and soil storage pipelines near intakes. Deliver Atlas information to first responders.

PIMMA (NPMS mapper is public version)

Maps of the locations of hazardous material pipelines in the US.

State and federal agencies, pipeline managers, public utilities. Must apply for access.

http://tinyurl.com/k4ljqby

Determine if your wellhead protection area contains a hazardous liquid pipeline, gas transmission pipeline, liquefied natural gas plant, or breakout tank.

CAMEO Maps of chemical storage/Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) data in relation to drinking water sources.

Front-line chemical emergency planners and responders

http://www2.epa.gov/cameo

Download data on above-ground storage tanks in specific states to overlay in GIS with community landmarks, neighborhood

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facilities and residences.

ECHO Information and maps of facility inspections, enforcement, and violation history.

State and federal agencies, utilities, public, NGOs

http://echo.epa.gov/?redirect=echo

Locate NDPES dischargers in non-compliance and significant non-compliance.

DMR Loading Tool

Maps and data of point sources of contamination, including NPDES dischargers and TRI facilities.

State and federal agencies, utilities, public, NGOs

http://cfpub.epa.gov/dmr/

Locate dischargers of specific contaminants, and determine annual and daily average discharge.

Regional and state tools

A variety of databases and mapping tools exist at the state and regional level. A few examples are listed here.

Idaho Department of Environmental Quality mapping: https://www.deq.idaho.gov/assistance-resources/maps-data.aspxAlaska map of aquifer exemptions: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=5331521d1e7f44778b4bd1d02cd50517

Available 2015: New ToolsDWMAPS Support updates of

source water assessments and protection plans

State programs with impacts on water quality, utilities, NGOs, the public

Summer 2015 Determine how many hours’ distance between your intake and a potential source of contamination.

Successful Examples of Updating Assessments to Prioritize Risks:

Merrimack River Initiative (located in Massachusetts and New Hampshire):   The Merrimack River is a source of drinking water for 600,000 people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Sometimes referred to as the “cradle of the American industrial revolution," the river hosted the first large-scale factory town in the country and continues to support industrial activity along the river.  In response to the spill in West Virginia, EPA Region 1, the Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection, and the New Hampshire Dept. of Environmental Services Drinking Water Programs initiated a coordination effort between states, EPA, and local emergency responders.  The partners are planning to target above ground storage tank inspections, encourage spill response planning, and host spill response exercises. The initiative will include workshops with above ground (AST) owners, city officials, and public drinking water suppliers.

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2. Protect Sources of Drinking Water, Connecting with Key PartnersHarnessing the authorities, resources, and expertise of a diverse group of partners is essential to effective source water protection. Team efforts are often more effective than acting alone. However, greater collaboration requires both learning to effectively communicate with potential partners and overcoming institutional barriers. Several informative resources are available to support collaborative efforts to protect drinking water sources:

Tools for working with key partners:Online toolkits to facilitate collaboration among various stakeholders are available through the Source Water Collaborative. Each is focused on translating the terms and concepts underlying practice in key source water protection arenas. For example:

Opportunities to Protect Drinking water Sources and Advance Watershed Goals through the Clean Water Act. The goal of the Toolkit is to show how state Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) program staff and managers can more routinely and more intentionally coordinate CWA and SDWA activities to achieve improvements in the quality of our waters. This toolkit was developed by a state-EPA workgroup (with all EPA Headquarters water offices, several Regions, and several states). It focuses on opportunities for collaboration and synergy across clean water, drinking water, and ground water programs. The toolkit is organized using each of the principal tools established under the Clean Water Act including: water quality standards and impaired waters listings; NPDES permits; and nonpoint sources and TMDLs.

Additional tools include:Now Available: New Tools

Tool Name Purpose Tool Audience

Location Example

How-to-Collaborate Toolkit

Collection of tips, meeting materials, and resources to support forming partnerships to protect drinking water.

State source water programs, utilities, local governments, NGOs, and others interested in collaboration.

www.sourcewatercollaborative.org/how-to-collaborate-tool

The Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative provided example meeting minutes and “lessons learned” to the toolkit.

Conservation Partners Toolkits

Tips for successful partnership with NRCS State Conservationists and local

Federal, state, watershed/regional, and local parties interested in promoting source water

http://www.sourcewatercollaborative.org/swp-conservation-partners-toolkit/

Conservationists and source water stakeholders in Connecticut worked together to achieve a USDA

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conservation districts, to encourage practices that protect drinking water sources.

protection actions NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant.

Opportunities to Protect Drinking Water and Advance Watershed Goals Through the Clean Water Act

Collection of tips and recommendations for applying provisions of the CWA to protect sources of drinking water.

A Toolkit for State, Interstate, Tribal and Federal Water Program Managers

http://www.gwpc.org/cwa-sdwa-coordination-toolkit

The Administrative Code of Ohio requires all NDPES permittees to notify downstream public water systems in case of accidental spills. This requirement facilitates swift emergency response.

Coming Soon: New Tools for 2015CWA Toolkit for Local Source Water Stakeholders

Provide information about opportunities for input to CWA tools and processes affecting drinking water sources at the watershed and local levels.

SWC member organizations (water utilities and local-level constituents)

Fall 2015

Successful Examples of Source Water Protection and Coordination/Collaboration: Our goal is for source water protection to become “hardwired” into the fabric of federal, state, and local government entities and organizations so that it happens automatically, rather than depending on the efforts of particular individuals.   

Collaboration and partnerships lead to efficient working relationships that accomplish mutual goals over time. See the Source Water Collaborative’s map of existing collaboratives for information and examples.

Partnering to Protect Drinking Water Sources: Various Models for Large and Small Systems

Many of our nation’s largest cities have well-protected watersheds as a result of either outright ownership of the lands drained by the watershed (or in the wellhead protection area) or restrictive ordinances governing the use of those lands. However, many cities do not own the land in their watershed/aquifershed and must rely more heavily on partnering. Philadelphia is an example of the latter category. Philadelphia’s water utility has worked with more than 150 partners-- local watershed organizations, land conservancies, businesses, schools, water suppliers,

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Partnership Opportunities:

State emergency management agency, or local emergency management committee: Communicate with your local emergency management operatives to coordinate notification in case of emergencies. These partnerships can help utilities swiftly access spill and disaster information relevant to their drinking water supplies. FEMA hazard mitigation programs may apply to water and wastewater utilities: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/funding/fedfunds/hmap.cfm.

US Endowment for Forestry & Communities: The U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, the World Resources Institute, and The Cadmus Group, Inc. were awarded a two-year USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant in 2014 to conduct a comparative analysis of investment-based source water protection programs in forested watersheds in the United States.

NRCS and Forest Service Chiefs’ Joint Landscape Restoration Initiative: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/mt/home/?cid=STELPRDB1246412 The purpose of this initiative is to: restore lands across large landscapes regardless of ownership; reduce wildfire threats to communities and landowners; protect water quality and supply and improve habitat for at-risk species seamlessly across public and private lands. This effort was launched in 2014 in 13 priority forested watersheds to leverage technical and financial resources and coordinate conservation activities on adjacent public and private lands.

The NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP): http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/farmbill/rcpp/The RCPP promotes coordination between NRCS and its partners to deliver conservation assistance to producers and landowners. RCPP encourages partners to join in efforts with producers to increase the restoration and sustainable use of soil, water, wildlife and related natural resources on regional or watershed scales. The RCPP was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill to streamline conservation efforts by combining four programs into one (the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program, Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative, and the Great Lakes Basin Program for Soil Erosion). The RCPP will provide $1.2 billion in funding over the life of the five-year program through three funding pools:

o 35 percent of total program funding is directed to critical conservation areas (including Great Lakes Region, Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Mississippi River Basin, Longleaf Pine Range, Columbia River Basin, California Bay Delta, Prairie Grasslands, and the Colorado River Basin);

o 40 percent is directed to regional or multi-state projects through a national competitive process; and

Partnering to Protect Drinking Water Sources: Various Models for Large and Small Systems

Many of our nation’s largest cities have well-protected watersheds as a result of either outright ownership of the lands drained by the watershed (or in the wellhead protection area) or restrictive ordinances governing the use of those lands. However, many cities do not own the land in their watershed/aquifershed and must rely more heavily on partnering. Philadelphia is an example of the latter category. Philadelphia’s water utility has worked with more than 150 partners-- local watershed organizations, land conservancies, businesses, schools, water suppliers,

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o 25 percent is directed to state-level projects through a competitive process established by NRCS state leaders.

Browse other partnership opportunities, including funding opportunities, with the How to Collaborate Toolkit (http://www.sourcewatercollaborative.org/how-to-collaborate-toolkit/), which features resources like

o “Find Key Partners” section (http://www.sourcewatercollaborative.org/how-to-collaborate-toolkit/considering/partners/)

o Capacity for Watershed Protection Investment Dashboard (http://www.efc.sog.unc.edu/reslib/item/capacity-watershed-protection-investment-dashboard#)

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3. Activate Rapid Emergency Notification, Mitigation, and Resiliency MeasuresProtective, preventative actions are the backbone of source water protection. However, preventative measures may be overwhelmed by an unexpected threat or contamination spill, and therefore it becomes necessary to mitigate damage and recover as soon as possible. Adopting an “all hazards” emergency planning and operations strategy both informs preventative measures and improves response and resiliency when emergencies occur. It is helpful for these strategies, including notification plans, to be coordinated with operators of chemical facilities and other discharge sites and systems, drinking water utilities, relevant government agencies and partners, and other potentially impacted downstream or nearby drinking water systems and sites.

Tools for Emergency Response and Resiliency:

Water/Wastewater Agency Response Networks (WARNs): A powerful tool for emergency response and resilience is a WARN, which is an intrastate network of "utilities helping utilities" to respond to and recover from emergencies by sharing resources with one another. The WARN framework provides a forum for maintaining emergency contacts, providing expedited access to specialized resources, and facilitating training on resource exchange during an emergency. The American Water Works Association

Consider These Steps to Develop or Enhance Preparedness and Resiliency

Locate sites of potential contamination sources (PCSs): Locate sites of PCSs and permitted outfalls (using GIS mapping, if possible) upstream of surface water intakes, and within wellhead protection areas, for public water systems, and determine the time-of-travel for relevant contaminants to reach the intake or well.

Develop communication strategies and emergency response protocols: Coordinate with operators of potential contaminant sites, relevant government agencies and partners, and other potentially impacted downstream or nearby drinking water systems and sites.

Collect contaminant identification and health effects data for known contaminants.

Develop or enhance monitoring and surveillance: Develop or enhance an early warning system using on-line water quality monitoring, contaminant sampling and analysis, enhanced security monitoring, consumer complaint surveillance, public health surveillance, and consequence management to detect contaminants before they reach the intake or well, and within the distribution system.

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(AWWA) and EPA have developed resources for establishing and maintaining mutual aid and assistance programs for utilities in emergency events including on-going training exercises, see www.NationalWARN.org.

Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC): WaterISAC collects and disseminates threat alerts to thousands of water and wastewater utility professionals on a range of dangers to water utilities, including source water contamination incidents. WaterISAC provides direct access to extensive contaminant databases containing details on a chemical or microbiological contaminant's potential health effects, treatment techniques, lab methods and other aspects. Drinking water and wastewater utilities; local, state and federal government water, health and emergency management offices; and other water and emergency management organizations can sign up for WaterISAC at www.waterisac.org.

Additional tools and resources include:

Now Available: New ToolsTool Name Purpose Audience Location and exampleANSI/AWWA G300 Source Water Protection Operational Guidance

This management standard describes critical elements for the effective protection of source waters.

Water Utility http://www.awwa.org/store/productdetail.aspx?productid=39814230

ANSI/AWWA G440 Emergency Preparedness Practices

This management standard provides minimum requirements to establish and maintain an acceptable level of emergency preparedness based on the identified and perceived risks facing utilities in the water sector.

Water Utility http://www.awwa.org/store/productdetail.aspx?productid=28052

AWWA M19 Emergency Planning for Water Utilities

This manual offers guidance and tools for water and wastewater managers in preparing for either natural or human-caused emergencies.

Water Utility http://www.awwa.org/store/productdetail.aspx?productid=6708

ANSI/AWWA J100 Risk and Resilience Management

This standard sets requirements for all-hazards risk and resilience analysis and management for the water sector and prescribes methods that can be used for addressing these requirements.

Water Utility http://www.awwa.org/store/productdetail.aspx?productid=21625

Planning for an Emergency Water Supply (EPA/AWWA)

Provision of emergency water supply involves collaboration and partnership between various levels of government. Although this document is not guidance as to how to comply with any particular law, it provides a helpful review of the roles and responsibilities among various levels of government regarding emergency water supplies.

Water Utility, State Primacy Agency, Emergency Management

http://www.awwa.org/Portals/0/files/resources/water%20knowledge/rc%20emergency%20prep/Emergencywater.PDF

ICWater/ RiverSpill

Downstream modeling of contaminant plumes and concentrations at vulnerable facilities. Used in spill disaster situations, including the 2014

Water Utility, State Primacy Agency

https://www.leidos.com/products/marine/icwater

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spill of MCHM into Elk River.Water Contaminant Information Tool (WCIT)

WCIT contains information on contaminants of concern to water security, including response guidelines and treatment options.

Water Utility, State Primacy Agency

http://www.epa.gov/wcit/

Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA)

WLA is an integrated nationwide network of laboratories that has the capability and capacity to analyze water samples in the event of natural, intentional, or unintentional water incidents involving chemical, biological, or radiochemical contaminants.

Water Utility, State Primacy Agency

http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/wla/

Community Based Water Resiliency

Tool for community self-assessment of vulnerability to hurricanes, tornadoes, aging infrastructure and intentional contamination. Outlines sector interdependencies and links to training materials.

Local community, water utility

http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/communities/index.cfm

Flood Resilience Guide

Easy-to-use tool that helps water utilities know their flooding threat and identify practical mitigation options to protect their critical assets. Includes worksheets, instructional videos, and flood maps to help utilities through a simple, 4-step process.

Water Utility http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/emerplan/upload/epa817b14006.pdf

Example: Featured in assessments at Berwick, Maine and Jamestown, Colorado.

Water Sector Incident Action Checklists

Checklists that outline critical measures that drinking water and wastewater utility personnel can take immediately before, during and after an emergency to protect their systems. Ten incident types are highlighted, including drought, earthquake, extreme cold, extreme heat, flooding, hurricane, tornado, tsunami, volcanic activity and wildfire.

Water Utility http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/emerplan/#pp29

Federal Funding for Utilities - Water/Wastewater - in National Disasters (Fed FUNDS)

Provides tailored information to water and wastewater utilities about applicable federal disaster funding programs.

Water Utility www.epa.gov/fedfunds

Example: Used by post-Sandy utilities to identify potential recovery funding opportunities.

Water Utility Response On-The-Go mobile website

Consolidates, and makes accessible from the field, information and tools that water utility operators and their response partners may need during an emergency. Available resources include response partner contact information, severe weather and forecasting tools, damage assessment forms, incident-specific action checklists, incident command system information and links to additional resources.

Water Utility, Emergency Response Managers

http://watersgeo.epa.gov/responseotg/

All-Hazards Boot Camp Training:Emergency Planning, Response,

Training course for water sector employees responsible for emergency response and recovery activities that explains why and how to implement a comprehensive all-hazards program and provides resources that are available to

Water Utility, Emergency Response Managers

TBD, expected April 2015

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Recovery assist in the process.Don’t Get Soaked: Invest in Emergency Preparedness, Prevention, and Mitigation

Video highlighting the benefits of investing in preparedness, prevention, and mitigation activities at water utilities. Features testimonials from drinking water and wastewater utilities on real world events that have impacted their organization.

Water Utility Managers, Board Members, and Elected/Appointed Officials

http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/basicinformation.cfm#dontgetsoaked

Water Security Initiative

An integrated approach to monitoring for drinking water contamination incidents and responding effectively if contamination is suspected or confirmed

Water Utility, State Primacy Agency

http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/lawsregs/initiative.cfm

Example: Contamination warning systems successfully deployed in Cincinnati, New York City, Dallas, Philadelphia, and San Francisco

For more tools, please browse the Emergency Planning, Response and Recovery webpage from the EPA’s Water Security Division.

Successful Examples of Emergency Response and Resiliency

The Triple Divide Watershed Coalition, a local source water collaborative in Pennsylvania, worked with Tioga/Potter 911 networks to overlay maps and information on public water systems into an emergency response tool in case of a chemical spill.

The Hamilton-New Baltimore Consortium, a collaborative in Ohio, created a Contingency Plan for toxic spill cleanup. The Consortium publicizes a Regulated Substance Release Report, information on emergency response procedures, and contacts for environmental cleanup organizations.

Delaware Valley Early Warning System:  The Delaware Valley Early Warning System (EWS) is an integrated monitoring, communication, and notification system used to provide advanced warning of water quality events to water suppliers and industrial intake operators in the Schuylkill and Delaware River watersheds. The EWS was initially deployed in 2004 and by 2008 has grown to include over 250 users in 47 different organizations within the EWS coverage area. EWS partners include 23 water treatment plants (WTPs) from 12 utilities in Pennsylvania and 5 WTPs from 5 utilities in New Jersey, along with PA DEP, NJ DEP, DRBC, US EPA, USGS, US Coast Guard, County Health Departments, and over 25 industries.  The EWS provides advanced warning of water quality events, web-based tools for determining proper event response, and a strong partnership between water users and emergency responders in the Schuylkill and Delaware River watersheds.  See presentation with more information here: http://www.nrt.org/production/NRT/RRT3.nsf/Resources/powerpointSep08-2/$File/PDuzinski.pdf

Beaver Water uses its emergency management agency to receive quick notification of incidents within its source water protection area in northwest Arkansas. Beaver Water asked to be added to a distribution list for

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Background: Assessment of the Current Situation

Overview: Much progress in source water protection has been made over the past decade. Those engaged in these efforts – at all levels of government – can rightly take pride in impressive accomplishments throughout the nation. But, much remains to be done. Recent spills and trends illustrate remaining challenges. The time, expense, and intangible detriments (e.g., loss of public confidence in drinking water) underscore the old adage: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The silver lining in the dark cloud of these incidents may well be that they represent a “teachable” moment for a recommitment -- at all levels--- to this critical undertaking. But the task is not easy. Protecting sources of drinking water is inherently challenging in that it involves a wide variety of players at multiple levels of government and various sectors. These players bring to the table diverse roles and responsibilities, authorities, and available resources.

Existing Statutory and Regulatory Source Water Protection Tools: Source water protection includes multiple elements (and associated tools), both mandatory and voluntary, including the following:

Mandatory programs: State-designated uses that must be attained/maintained State ambient water quality criteria that must be met NPDES permit limits designed to meet water quality criteria Local ordinances and other requirements New source approval requirements for community water systems,

where required.Voluntary programs:

Development of source water protection plans for each drinking water intake

Implementation of best agricultural and other practices

In addition to multiple Federal requirements that can protect drinking water sources, many states have their own mandatory elements, such as state statutes or regulations requiring local source water protection plans. Similarly, many local jurisdictions have source water protection elements embedded in their local governance structure and functions; though many do not. Linking voluntary and mandatory programs (e.g., targeting existing Clean Water Act tools to protect sources of drinking water) can strengthen source water protection, as discussed in more detail above concerning partnering to protect sources of drinking water.

The State of State Source Water Assessments: Assessments were required to be performed on a one time basis by the 1996 amendments to

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the Safe Drinking Water Act. Many of these were done well and comprehensively in the 2002-2003 time frame, as required. Though the Act does not require updated assessments, many states have periodically revised and updated them, but they’re unfortunately outdated in other cases. Source water protection is a “moving target.” Up-to-date assessments are needed to support meaningful protection efforts. The completed assessments likewise reflect a variety of data management approaches. Some are geo-referenced and highly integrated into other data/information sources; while others are not. New geospatial and networking tools make it increasingly easy to supplement assessments with up-to-date information.

Local Source Water Protection Plans (and actions based on those plans): Many communities and water utilities have up-to-date and comprehensive source water protection plans (typically, the larger utilities); but many do not. Utilities (particularly, smaller utilities) often lack the resources and authority to develop and maintain source water protection plans. Utilities are well-placed to ensure that source water protection is truly effective over the long term. This is because actual protection of sources of drinking water takes place at the local level. However, a variety of “traditional” (e.g., EPA, States, other utilities) and “non-traditional” (e.g., local planning commissions, city managers, developers, farmers, industry, etc.) partners must also engage in protection, in order to influence larger policy decisions (e.g., land use and regulated contaminant sources) over which utilities have little control.

Water Quantity Challenges: Water quality and quantity are increasingly becoming flip sides of the same coin. An ever-increasing scarcity of water in many parts of the country leads communities to tap into lesser quality

Defining Terms

A Source Water Assessment (SWA) is a project with a finite product. SWAs consist of a delineation of the source water area (watershed or wellhead), an inventory of potential sources of contamination, and an evaluation of the susceptibility of the drinking water source to contamination.

A Source Water Protection Plan (SWPP) is a program with a planning process involving a team composed (ideally) of the water utility staff, community members, business leaders, agricultural producers and others. The planning team uses the SWA along with on-the-ground input to identify potential threats to the drinking water source and develops strategies to manage the threats. Source water planning builds local capacity to system resiliency. The SWA is, in most cases, a snapshot of a utility’s drinking water source as seen from a desktop survey of existing records or onsite evaluations by the state primacy staff or contractors. The SWA is most effective when it is used as a starting point to guide a community in developing and implementing a source water protection plan (SWPP). The SWPP is designed to be a living document that can be easily modified

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sources. In this context, protecting all sources becomes even more critical and our collective efforts need to be crafted accordingly.

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Key References

Matrix: Who’s Responsible for Source Water Protection: who does what in the arena of source water protection? Outlines scope of different organizations’ activities, particularly regarding the principal Federal statutes that address potential point and nonpoint discharges to both surface and ground waters

Funding Sources for Source Water Protection (http://www.sourcewatercollaborative.org/how-to-collaborate-toolkit/resources/funding/)

AWWA’s G-300, G440 and J100 Standards (available for purchase at: http://www.awwa.org/publications/standards.aspx)

AWWA’s M19 Manual (available for purchase at: http://www.awwa.org/publications/standards.aspx)

AWWA resource community pageso Source water protection:

http://www.awwa.org/resources-tools/water-knowledge//source-water-protection.aspx

o Emergency preparedness: http://www.awwa.org/resources-tools/water-knowledge/emergency-preparedness.aspx

ASDWA Elements of a Successful State Source Water Protection Program http://www.asdwa.org/_data/n_0001/resources/live/effective%20elements%206-2008%20-%20FINAL.pdf

WaterRF Source Water Protection Road Map (http://www.waterrf.org/Page s/Projects.aspx?PID=4176)

Trust for Public Land :o "Path to Protection:  Ten Strategies for Successful Source

Water Protection" (http://cloud.tpl.org/pubs/water_pathtoprotection.pdf)

o “Source Protection Handbook”: https://www.tpl.org/source-protection-handbook

o “Protecting the Source”: https://www.tpl.org/protecting-source

Security/Emergency Tools and Resources for State Drinking Water Programs and Water Utilities

o EPA’s Water Security Home Page includes a Tools and Technical Assistance page with available resources to assist water utilities in performing risk assessments, developing effective emergency response plans, and conducting tabletop exercises. These include helpful tips for coordinating and sharing contact information with relevant authorities and operators of potential contamination sites.

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o ASDWA’s Security Web Pages include information and links to a variety of resources for state drinking water programs. Following are some of the most recent and relevant resources from the pages.

ASDWA/NEMA Webinar: Successful Partnerships: How State Primacy and Emergency Management Agencies Work – April 2014. View the presentations and an audio/video recording of this webinar, which showcases successful partnerships between state drinking water programs and emergency management agencies. 

Video of the Webinar: http://youtu.be/VsPaM5FfqxQ Enhancing Security

ASDWA and EPA’s Water Security Division have collaborated to produce two new documents to offer states some low cost/no cost ways to enhance their own security posture and provide additional support for their water systems as they strive to be resilient in the face of natural disasters, intentional security breaches, and contamination events.

o BRIDGING THE GAP:   Coordination Between State Primacy Agencies and State Emergency Management Agencies focuses on collaborative opportunities between state primacy and emergency management agencies when an incident requires state involvement.  The document highlights the need to consider water as part of an effective emergency response; the value that state primacy agencies can provide both before and during an emergency; and a quick checklist of topics that should be discussed when a primacy agency meets with their emergency management counterparts.  (February 2013)

o STATE DRINKING WATER PROGRAM All Hazards Preparedness, Mitigation, Response and Recovery Checklist provides state drinking water programs with a checklist of actions that should be considered before, during, and after an emergency.  The document offers recommended actions that every state drinking water program should be able to undertake and implement to support and sustain public health protection.  (July 2013)

ASDWA/EPA Webinar: Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) Template for Drinking Water and Wastewater Laboratories - September 2014 - EPA’s Water Security Division and ASDWA hosted a joint webcast on the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) Template for Drinking Water and Wastewater Laboratories. EPA’s COOP Template is designed to help state, utility, and private laboratories enhance the reliability of critical laboratory operations during a crisis. Video of the Webinar: http://youtu.be/MnF4q8tBi6s

ASDWA Security Notes Blog provides up-to-the minute information on topics of interest to state drinking water security programs. Information from EPA and DHS as well as key information about security legislation, and updates provided by

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Water Sector partners and workgroups are all included. There is no cost to sign up to receive this information.