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Why? Incentives and Benefits for your Efforts.
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Due to detections of nitrate, a water system installed additional carbon filter which cost $XX.
In the State of Nevada, monitoring waivers have allowed public water systems participating in the program to save over $3 million in reduced monitoring costs.
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1. Reduce future costs.
People may worry that a SWP program is be too expensive. When compared to the costs of cleaning up after a contamination incident, the costs of preventing contamination are very small. Installing treatment plants, locating new drinking water sources, constructing new systems (i.e., new wells or intakes), and cleaning up contamination sites are all expensive, and sometimes impossible. Other costs could include decreased property values, loss of tax base, and loss of citizen's confidence in their drinking water, public utilities, and community leaders.
2. Reduced cost today.
It may also make your water system eligiblefor money saving opportunities. Your water system might receive waivers for certain water monitoring or treatment requirements and thus not have to do some potentially expensive chemical sampling or treatment of its water supply--which results in savings of money and personnel time for your water system. For example, if your community can show that potential sources of cyanide (e.g., metal plating industries, mines, etc.) are not present in the source water protection area or, if present, are adequately controlled so that the public water system is not susceptible to cyanide contamination, then the system may be eligible for a monitoring waiver. Such a waiver may allow the system to reduce monitoring frequency for cyanide from once every 3 months to once every 3 years, resulting in considerable cost savings.
3. Power at the local level.
Developing and implementing a good source water protection program is an opportunity for your community to take an active role and work together in protecting public health and the environment.
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