Notice of Availability of Funds for Source Water Protection
[Federal Register: May 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 92)]
[Notices]
[Page 30404-30406]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr11my00-51]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-6605-6]
Notice of Availability of Funds for Source Water Protection
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks proposals from
organizations interested in working with communities across the nation
that are served by public water systems with highly or moderately
susceptible drinking water sources to protect their sources of drinking
water from contamination using a watershed or ``resource-based''
approach.
EPA is providing this financial support to:
Facilitate the establishment of a technical field presence
nationwide to help communities that would benefit from collaborative
source water protection actions with other communities; and
Assist communities across the country in addressing the
obstacles to protecting their water resources and lowering the
susceptibility of source waters through a watershed or ``resource-
based'' planning approach.
EPA intends to use at least part of the funds to help an
organization interested in establishing a national network of field
technicians to assist communities with watershed or resource-based
planning to protect their water supplies. However, EPA is very
interested in seeing other types of approaches to help communities
across the country protect drinking water sources, such as an approach
that provides direct financial assistance and technical support to
communities through means other than a field presence. Depending upon
the proposals received, EPA will consider awarding a second grant that
would complement a field technician approach.
DATES: All project proposals must be received by EPA no later than June
12, 2000.
ADDRESSES: Send five copies of the complete proposal to: Betsy Henry
(4606), Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, U.S. EPA, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20460.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Betsy Henry, (202) 260-2399.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
What Is a State or Tribal Source Water Assessment?
As mandated by the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, a
state's source water assessment identifies the area that supplies water
to each public drinking water system within the state, inventories the
significant potential sources of contamination, and analyzes how
susceptible the drinking water source is to contamination (often
referred to as a ``susceptibility determination''). The Amendments
allocated funding to states to complete source water assessments for
all 170,000 public water systems. The results of these assessments are
to be provided to each water supplier and made widely accessible to the
public by 2003. EPA is also helping Tribes complete source water
assessments of public water supplies in Indian Country.
The assessments are intended to give communities the information
that they need to make informed decisions to protect their drinking
water sources from contamination.
What Is a Highly or Moderately Susceptible Source Water Area?
There is a high degree of flexibility in how a state determines the
susceptibility of its public water systems. The organization would need
to work with the state source water programs to identify those public
water systems or areas of the state that the state determines are
highly or moderately susceptible to contamination and would most
benefit from source water protection planning on a watershed or
resource-wide scale.
What Is Source Water Protection?
Source water protection is the establishment of barriers that
significantly lower the risk of contaminants of concern entering waters
serving as public drinking water supplies. Building upon State or
Tribal source water assessments, more communities will be examining
what actions are necessary to protect their
[[Page 30405]]
sources of drinking water from the identified potential threats, and
lower the susceptibility of their water supply to contamination.
Planning is a critical first step so that a community or group of
communities can use their limited resources to most effectively target
sources of contamination that pose the highest or most immediate
threats. Many communities need assistance working through the planning
process.
Ideally, communities with public water systems that share the same
resource or common threats would work together to identify their needs
and jointly set priorities. Some basic planning elements include:
An analysis of the state or tribal source water assessment
for the systems involved in the planning.
Identification of preventative action priorities and
recommended measures for addressing them, including costs.
Identification of an approach for determining the effect
of the proposed priority actions on lowering the threats to source
waters.
Identification of alternative water supplies which would
be needed in the case of emergencies (contingency planning).
Many communities also need assistance in addressing their priority
preventative actions. Preventative actions might include land
acquisition, land use ordinance establishment, leaky underground gas
tank removal from sensitive areas, relocation of high-risk threats, or
other measures.
What Is ``Resource-Based'' Source Water Protection?
A resource-based approach to source water protection promotes
partnerships between public water systems that share a common source
(river, lake, spring or aquifer) or face common contaminant threats.
The approach encourages joint protection of water supplies through a
single planning and prioritization process. A single water system might
also benefit from a resource-based approach if the community can not
adequately protect its drinking water source without collaborating with
communities in the same watershed or recharge area that may have more
control over potential threats to the water supply.
While similar, a resource-based approach is distinguished from
watershed planning by focusing also on ground water areas that may not
coincide with a watershed boundary. It is distinguished from
traditional wellhead protection planning by broadening the scope from
the traditional water system-by-system planning approach to planning on
a shared resource scale that is based on natural geological and
hydrological boundaries. However, a resource-based approach is not
necessarily the same as large aquifer-wide planning (such as the
Edwards aquifer) or a large watershed (e.g. Mississippi basin). These
large scales often are beyond the scope of what is realistic or
necessary for protecting sources of drinking water.
Why Is EPA Limiting the Focus to Highly or Moderately Susceptible
Source Waters, and Using a Watershed or Resource-Wide Approach?
There are over 170,000 public water systems in the United States.
While States have resources through the State Revolving Fund Programs,
EPA has limited discretionary resources to help local communities
implement source water protection for all of these systems' sources of
drinking water. EPA believes that communities with public water
supplies that are most susceptible to contamination should be the
communities first targeted for assistance to identify and implement
preventative measures to protect their drinking water sources.
EPA is also trying to encourage watershed-based or resource-based
approaches to source water protection as an alternative to the
traditional water system-by-system wellhead protection approach. This
``multi-system'' planning process can be more cost effective because
one protection plan serves several systems. Also, it can result in a
level of protection that is sometimes more effective in lowering
threats, since threats to water quality are not always close to the
intake or wellhead.
Funding Level and Statutory Authority
Funding is authorized under the Safe Drinking Water Act 42 U.S.C.
300j-1(c)(3)(C).
Total funding available for distribution is $1.4 million dollars.
EPA intends to disburse these funds to one or possibly two
organizations if, based on the applications received, communities will
benefit from two approaches that complement one another.
Proposal Contents
Interested applicants should submit a work plan that:
Outlines the approach to assisting communities to engage
in community-based source water protection planning and priority action
implementation.
Includes a budget for no less than $700,000 and no more
than $1.4 million for implementing the approach over a two-year period.
Provides biographies of the project leaders.
Eligibility Criteria
The recipient organization must be a not-for-profit
organization, educational institution, or public agency that meets the
following criteria:
Experience providing technical assistance to communities
implementing community-based environmental programs for protecting
drinking water, ground water or surface water quality.
Experience working with communities to do resource-based/
watershed or multi-jurisdictional planning, and facilitating
partnerships between disparate stakeholders.
Access to an established network capable of working with
communities nationwide.
Experience working with state agencies.
Experience handling large grants of $700,000 or more,
timely periodic reporting of progress and displaying the results of
those grants to a wide public.
EPA Project Proposal Evaluation Criteria
EPA will evaluate all applicants based on the following criteria:
Clearly outlines the approach that the organization will
take to assist communities in a variety of regions across the country
served by public water systems that have state-identified highly or
moderately susceptible source waters. (30 points)
Demonstrates knowledge of source water protection and
ability to provide assistance to communities to effectively protect
their drinking water supplies and address their highest priority needs.
(25 points)
Describes approach to community involvement in source
water protection planning. (20)
Identifies innovative means of networking the different
communities receiving assistance with one another. (20 points)
Leverages other resources as part of the proposed
approach. (5 points)
Application Procedure
Please submit five copies of a proposal that includes a narrative
work plan and budget that does not exceed 10 single spaced pages, with
one-inch margins and 12-point font, stapled in one corner with no
binding. You may also include up to 15 pages of supplementary material,
such as the resumes and summaries of prior work. After EPA review,
selected applicants will be asked to submit an SF-424.
[[Page 30406]]
Schedule of Activities
This is the estimated schedule of activities for review and award
of proposals.
Day 30: Proposals due 30 days after publication of Federal
Register notice.
Day 44: All applicants notified of government review
status.
Day 54: Selected applicant(s) submit a SF-424.
July 10: Selected application(s) forwarded to EPA grants
office.
Aug. 10: Grants processing complete/Congressional
notifications.
Dated: May 4, 2000.
Cynthia C. Dougherty,
Director, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.
[FR Doc. 00-11818 Filed 5-10-00; 8:45 am]
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