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Source Water Protection At the Community Level
 EPA has developed comprehensive planning tools for both ground water and surface water supplies. The example in box 1 illustrates a community which started a Wellhead Protection Program (WHPP) to protect their ground water which was their source water. Box 2 is a surface water example where the community developed a Watershed Protection. Don't let these different terms confuse you. The process for both ground water and surface water through Wellhead Protection and Watershed Management are very similar. They both involve assessing the problems within the protection area, developing management measures for those problems and then implementing the management measures.
All public water systems will have an assessment done by the state drinking water program, which will encompass a delineation, a contaminant inventory and susceptibility determination. If you feel that your assessments are in need of more detailed information, you may choose to elaborate on your state's assessment before you begin planning for you management activities.
Kalamazoo County, Michigan
BOX 1 |
| The program started in response to the county's need to know what was happening to its drinking water and what the government was doing to protect ground water supplies. In 1993, a Ground Water Protection Strategy report showed more than 2,000 registered underground storage tanks, more than 5,000 stormwater leaching basins and 82 hazardous waste facilities. The county already has more than 250 know sites of environmental contamination, including four public water supplies and more than a dozen contaminated site that negatively affected private water supplies.
In November 1993, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners passed the Resolution on Ground Water Protection that adopted a policy of supporting the elimination of discharges detrimental to ground water; use of Best Management Practices to reduce discharges; and the development of public outreach program to sectors identified by the Ground Water Strategy. The WHP Networking group has met quarterly since August 1995. At these meetings, speakers from various local, state, private and nonprofit organizations educate and motivate local officials regarding the need for ground water protection. In February 1998, the county developed a report card for all governmental units that tracks the activities the communities have begun or completed. The report card is updated periodically and distributed county wide in order to publicize progress.
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Salt Lake City Corporation, Department of Public Utilities
BOX 2 |
| The Salt Lake city economy is booming and development is unprecedented. Recreational tourism and changing land use practices, construction of new homes and expansion of urban areas, is affecting water quality and impacting public drinking water supplies. Increased use is giving rise to more coliform bacteria in canyon streams. This is why Salt Lake City invests in source water protection. The ability to provide high quality drinking water depends on the protection of source water.
Salt Lake City, under state law, has passed ordinances which are enforced by the city to manage the watershed lands that are not municipally owned. It regulated uses in the surrounding canyons. Hiking and camping are allowed, but overnight campers must stay 200 feet from any source water. In watershed areas, the city prohibits dogs, horses, and grazing and it does not allow septic systems. Anyone caught polluting the city's source water, regardless of land ownership, may be fined.
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For additional surface water and ground water case studies of local protection efforts, see http://www.epa.gov/safewater/protect/sources.html.
The following are examples of management tools which you could include in your WHP or Watershed plans.
- Working with Facilities to Reduce Potential for Pollution - Federal and State laws regulate discharges into the environment, but if a facility has been identified as a high threat to your source water, work with those facilities to minimize all permitted discharges and to further measures to prevent spills or releases.
- Zoning Ordinances - To divide a municipality into land-use districts and separate incompatible land uses such as residential, commercial and industrial; zoning also defines the type of activity that can occur within a district and specifies appropriate regulations that can be used to prevent activities that could be harmful to the community's ground water. For a compendium of ordinances that exist around the country, click here.
- Subdivision Ordinances - Applied when a piece of land is actually being divided into lots for sale or development to ensure that growth does not outpace available local facilities such as roads, schools, and fire protection; subdivision ordinances also can be used to set density standards, require open space set asides, and regulate the timing of development, all of which can have significant impacts on ground-water quality.
- Source Prohibitions - To prohibit the storage or use of dangerous materials in a protection area; these can take the form of prohibitions of certain activities or of restrictions on the use of certain materials.
- Purchase of Property or Development Rights - To guarantee community control over the activities on lands that feed water into an aquifer or surface water; this may involve outright purchase of the land or of a more limited interest, such as surface-use rights.
- Public Education - To build community support for regulatory programs, such as controls on pollution sources in special zoning districts, and to motivate voluntary ground water protection efforts, such as water conservation or household hazardous waste management.
- Household Hazardous Waste Collection - To alleviate the threat to ground water from the disposal in regular trash pick ups, sewers, or septic systems of household products that contain hazardous substances or other materials that can be harmful to ground water, such as paints, solvents, or pesticides.
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