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2915 S. 13th Street Duncan, OK 73533 580-252-0629 FAX 580-255-4476 Contact: Kris R. Cash, nrwakc@nrwa.org
Raising the Bar
for Safe Water - Over 250 million Americans receive drinking water from approximately 170,000 public water supplies. 40% of the United States drinking water comes from public water system wells. The safety of drinking water supplies starts at the source. A community is automatically at higher risk if it relies on a source that may potentially be subject to contamination with micro-pathogens or other harmful compounds. Improperly disposed or managed chemicals, animal wastes, pesticides, human wastes, and naturally occurring minerals can all contaminate drinking water sources. Likewise vandalism, acts of terrorism, and unintentional releases through equipment failure or highway accidents can all negatively impact drinking water sources. Proper planning and foresight through source water and wellhead protection plans can mitigate or even prevent some of the impacts. Contamination prevention is a common sense approach to safeguarding public health by taking action to protect each source of drinking water from contamination. Preventative actions are successful when they significantly lower the risk of contamination. In many cases, contamination prevention is the primary safeguard to public health, particularly for water systems with conventional treatment technologies. Therefore a wellhead and source water protection programmatic approach to prevent drinking water contamination is important for four reasons: 1. It makes good public health sense 2. It makes good economic sense 3. It makes good environmental sense 4. It prevents contamination and potential MCL violations National Rural Water Association’s (NRWA) Wellhead Protection Program (WHP) provides the resources and assistance to enable communities to take a proactive approach toward protecting their valuable drinking water resources and embrace the USEPA’s Strategic Plan for clean and safe water, and to protect human health by reducing exposure to contaminants in drinking water. The majority of community water systems in the nation (94%) serve utilities of less than 10,000 people. Approximately 60% of these systems serve less than 150 connections. This program is a critical link to environmental protection in rural and small communities who otherwise would not be able to afford the expertise and resources on their own. NRWA has been very successful engaging jurisdictions to maximize the level of protection through ground water planning efforts for rural communities. Without the efforts of NRWA and this grant, many rural communities would not have an adequate level of protection for their drinking water sources. The wellhead protection program brings entities within the community together to implement a ground water protection effort. This effort enhances public health protection and minimizes the potential of contamination and thus violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
This year, nationwide, 200 plans have been completed with an additional 340 in work. From the start of the program over 8500 plans have been completed ensuring clean safe drinking water for thousands of small communities across the country.
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