Watershed groups, water resource professionals, and just about anyone who drinks water will have an interest in following the development of the Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) in their home state, and their local watershed.
This program is part of the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments of 1996. It is intended to strengthen protection for public drinking water supplies, and addresses both surface water and ground water. Under guidance developed by the EPA, states are directed to develop a Source Water Assessment Program that incorporates the elements of:
source area delineation
contaminant inventory
vulnerability assessment
In California, SWAP is being developed by the Dept. of Health Services (DHS) in coordination with the State Water Resources Control Board. The program aims to meet the requirements of SWAP and has the following additional goals:
Encourage a proactive approach to protecting drinking water sources; and
Refine/focus/target the monitoring requirements for drinking water sources.
The SWAP timeline is a short one: EPA guidance for SWAP was published in August, and states have 18 months from this date to develop and submit a SWAP program to EPA for approval. Public involvement is an important part of the development of the SWAP inventory and assessment. Equally important, management strategies to address water supply protection issues surfaced in the SWAP assessment will be developed at the local level.
This new program will be developed within an already complex arena. In California, for example, at the state level alone there are ten different Departments or Boards in three different Agencies that have a major role in water resource protection. Some important roles that watershed groups and water resource professionals can play in SWAP development are:
provide technical expertise;
advocate for integration of SWAP with existing programs;
keep the focus on resource protection
For further information on how to get involved with SWAP, contact your state Department of Health Services. In California, the contact is: Alexis Milea, Chief, Standards and Technology Unit, Department of Health Services, 2151 Berkeley Way, Room 458, Berkeley, CA 94704, 510/540-2177 (phone) 510/540-2152 (fax)