Drinking Water Futures Forum

The Drinking Water Futures Forum was created by the Safe Drinking Water Act 25th Anniversary partnership to evaluate the challenges facing the nation in ensuring a safe supply of drinking water, and to develop a plan to meet those challenges. The Safe Drinking Water Act protects public health by ensuring the delivery of safe water to millions of Americans every day. Providing safe, high-quality drinking water is not an easy task, nor is it a job that any single government agency or professional organization can do by itself. Because drinking water is constantly vulnerable, it requires constant vigilance to maintain the public health protections we've come to expect -- vigilance from a community of water suppliers, consumers, scientists, regulators, local governments, and public advocacy groups. 

The Futures Forum provided the drinking water community with an opportunity to look to the future to ensure that we can meet tomorrow's challenges. Many drinking water organizations held discussions throughout the country to discuss the future of drinking water protection on topics related to drinking water treatment technologies, source water quality and quantity, vulnerable subpopulations, cost, small water systems, unserved populations, and drinking water research. EPA has summarized some of the key points it identified from the discussions. On December 16th, the organizations held a forum to identify some key issues raised in the year's discussions, and 19 organizations signed a joint statement on drinking water. The joint statement is the foundation we in the drinking water community will build on for future protection actions. 

The complexity of challenges surrounding drinking water in the future requires an increasing number of groups be involved in protection. Effective long term management of the drinking water resources requires consideration of not only upstream or up-gradient activities that might affect the quality and quantity of the drinking water source, but also recognition of the downstream water users and demands on the aquifer. Drinking water protection must become part of a larger water management strategy that will involve not only water providers, but should also involve a partnership of local government, source control agencies, consumers, and private landowners. 

The end of 1999 does not mark the end of the futures forum process, but only the beginning. Our success has been mutual agreement to work together on added protection, and to increase the number of participants in protection. As we enter the new century, we must continue to add to the drinking water community to identify and respond to hazards that threaten our water supply and our health. Working together, we can find new and innovative ways to achieve safe drinking water. 

Presented at the 25th Anniversary celebration
Education and Outreach: Educating our citizens and those with special health needs over the next 25 years (view PDF file, 1682K) by Jeffrey K. Griffiths.

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