About the Office of Water

What We Do

The Office of Water (OW) serves as the National Program Lead and principal advisor to the Administrator and provides Agency-wide policy, guidance and direction for the Agency’s water quality, drinking water, groundwater wetlands protection, marine and estuarine protection, and other water related programs.

OW performs the following functions:

  • National Program Leadership: Sets national policy, direction and priorities for implementing statutory obligations and achieving clean and safe water.
  • Policy Direction and Management: Establishes national policy direction and priorities for the National Water Program (NWP) consistent with sound science and statutory mandates.
  • EPA Region and Geographic Program Engagement and Coordination: Engages and coordinates with the EPA Regions and Geographic Programs (e.g. Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound) to assure implementation and alignment of NWP priorities.
  • Partnership with States and Tribes: Establishes and maintains effective partnerships with States and Tribes consistent with the principles of cooperative federalism. Provides support and national oversight of state and tribal water programs.
  • Research Collaboration: Works with research institutions, federal partners and the Office of Applied Science & Environmental Solutions (OASES) to align and advocate for research priorities. Assures that OASES research aligns with OW priorities.
  • Water Resource Security, Sustainability and Resilience: Advances integrated water resource management strategies to assure robust and forward leaning strategies.
  • Federal Leadership and Policy Alignment: Facilitates and coordinates water policy, programs and actions with Federal partners to optimize impact and leverage resources.
  • Surface, Groundwater and Source Water Protection: Develops and implements programs and policies to protect the quality of surface water and underground sources of drinking water.
  • Shared Accountability for Progress and Results: Develops and implements systems and metrics to assure transparency and accountability within the NWP and with States and Tribes to demonstrate environmental status, progress and results.

Related Information

Documents Related to Our Mission

Leadership

Jessica Kramer, Assistant Administrator

Peggy Browne, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator

Wes Brooks, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory and Scientific Affairs

Caitlin McHale, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Strategic Initiatives

Vacant, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy

Benita Best-Wong, Deputy Assistant Administrator For Management

David Risley, Chief of Staff

Organization

The Office of Water includes:

Mail code: 4101M | EPA mailing addresses

Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW)

What We Do

OGWDW is responsible for developing and directing national policy to ensure the safety of the Nation's drinking water supplies in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). As such, the Office is responsible for directing, establishing, and implementing all efforts within the Agency to protect the public from contaminants found in source waters or distribution systems and thought to be harmful to human health.
 
These public health protection activities include: promulgating new or revised scientifically sound and risk-based National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs); developing and conducting training, technical assistance, and financial assistance programs to enhance public water systems' capacity to comply with existing and new regulations; overseeing the sound implementation of the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) programs to support investment in the nation's drinking water infrastructure; conducting underground injection control programs; nationally implementing NPDWRs through state and tribal drinking water programs and policies to protect safe drinking water from natural, accidental or intentional threats, as well as developing and administering multiple statutory drinking water grant programs, protecting sources of drinking water, and directing and conducting drinking water research and development on health effects, risk assessment, treatment technologies, and analytical methods to support Safe Drinking Water Act activities.

Mail code: 4601M | EPA mailing addresses
Location: EPA Headquarters at Washington, D.C. Federal Triangle campus
202-564-3750

OGWDW Organization

Jennifer McLain, Director
Yu-Ting Guilaran, Deputy Director

The Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water includes:

Office of Water Emergency Response and Cybersecurity (OWERC)

The Office of Water Emergency Response and Cybersecurity (OWERC) performs the following functions:

  • By law, each of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors (e.g., energy, defense industrial base, transportation) has a Sector Risk Management Agency (SRMA) which serves as the federal lead agency responsible for enhancing that sector's security and resilience against risk-based threats, whether physical or cyber, malevolent or natural. EPA is the SRMA for the water and wastewater systems sector, and the OWERC within the Office of Water (OW) serves as the primary lead for this mission by virtue of its expertise with water and wastewater systems. In support of its national security and resilience mission, WERCC conducts the following work:
  • Cybersecurity: OWERC provides an array of guidance, exercises, and direct technical assistance to reduce the risk of cyberattacks against water and wastewater systems. During a cyberattack, OW coordinates closely with the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI in responding to cyberattacks against water and wastewater systems.
  • Emergency Response - External: WERCC provides technical assistance to reduce the risks to water and wastewater utilities from physical threats relating to natural disasters and other causes, such as supply chain disruptions.
  • Emergency Response - Internal: Under the Stafford Act and other water emergencies, OWERC coordinates with the Regions to provide emergency response trained staff for managing field operations, such as damage assessments, as well as other technical assistance to help restore the Nation’s critical water infrastructure after an emergency.
  • Intelligence Gathering/Dissemination: OWERC reviews classified threat intelligence information on a frequent basis to ensure that EPA provides exercises, tools, and technical assistance which effectively address the types of threat actors and common vulnerabilities exploited by these actors. WERCC has the primary federal responsibility for developing cybersecurity alerts for the water sector.
  • OWERC’s statutory authorities include the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, Section 9002 and the following sections of the Safe Drinking Water Act: 1431, 1433, 1441, and 1442.
  • OWERC consists of three Branches and an Immediate Office. The Immediate Office staff directs and oversees implementation of OWERC’s programs and administrative functions.

Mail code: 4301M | EPA mailing addresses
Location: EPA Headquarters at Washington, D.C. Federal Triangle campus
202-566-0430

OWERC Organization

David Travers, Director

The Office of Science and Technology includes:

  • Preparedness and Response Division
    Vacant, Director
  • Risk and Threat Analysis Division
    Latisha Mapp, Director
  • Cybersecurity Division
    Nushat Thomas, Director

Office of Wastewater Management (OWM)

What We Do

OWM performs the following functions:

  • Provides national direction for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, the National Pretreatment, and sewage sludge management programs under Sections 401,402, and 405 for the Clean Water Act (CWA).
  • Manages and oversees water infrastructure funding and financing programs, including the Water Finance Center, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) Program, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Loan Program, the Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) Community Grants Program, the Construction Grants Program, Clean Water Indian Set Aside Program, Alaska Native Villages Program, CWA 106 Grant Program, CWA 104(b) grants, the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grants Program, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) infrastructure assistance effort, and other various other financial and grant programs or initiatives.
  • Develops and disseminates technical information, and assists states, tribes, U.S. territories, utilities, and communities in assessing and implementing financial and technical solutions for their sewage, stormwater, and drinking water needs.
  • Oversees the promulgation and revision of effluent limitations guidelines and standards, identification, development and promulgation of CWA analytical test methods, and national oversight of the national Alternative Testing Procedures ATP program.
  • Conducts research (in collaboration with OASES), creates tools, and develops methods to evaluate and address contaminants and pollutants in wastewater and biosolids while assessing risks to human health and the environment.
  • Develops national strategies and works with partners, including utilities, consumers, and businesses, to encourage water conservation, efficient water use, and water reuse.
  • Facilitates outreach, education, training, coordination, and information exchange with Regions, States, Indian Tribes, cities, other Federal agencies, Congress, interest groups, international groups, and other nations, in conjunction with OITA, for OWM programs.
  • Develops program policy, guidance, and regulations to support programs within OWM.
  • Implements the EPA/OW Quality Assurance/Quality Control Program to ensure that environmental measurements are of known and defensible quality.

View OWM's Annual Reports.

Mail code: 4201M | EPA mailing addresses
Location: EPA Headquarters at Washington, D.C. Federal Triangle campus
202-564-0748

OWM Organization

Andrew Sawyers, Director 
Wynne Miller, Deputy Director

The Office of Wastewater Management includes:

Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW)

What We Do

The Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds (OWOW), under the supervision of the Office Director, is responsible to the Assistant Administrator for Water for developing policies, strategies, regulations, guidance and sound, scientifically defensible criteria, advisories, and guidelines for the protection of human health and the environment using a variety of relevant authorities contained in the Clean Water Act (CWA), Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA), Shore Protection Act (SPA), Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act (MPPRCA), Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research Control Act (HABHRCA), and other statutes. 

The Office manages programs involving the control of discharges of dredged and fill material into wetlands and other waters of the United States under Section 404 of the CWA and Section 103 of MPRSA; State conservation plans and programs to protect wetlands, including programs to assume Section 404 authority from the Federal government; the evaluation of 301(h) waivers; ocean dumping permits and site designation; 403(c) discharge criteria and other programs affecting the marine environment, including abatement of marine debris; the assessment and monitoring of surface water; the identification and listing of problem water-bodies under CWA Sections 303(d) and 304(1); the implementation and management of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program to determine needed levels of water quality-based controls for point sources and non-point sources; the management of the Nonpoint Source program (NPS), including CWA Section 319; the management of the National Estuary Program under CWA Section 320; the development of national recommendations for water quality criteria pursuant to CWA Section 304(a); and the management and implementation of the Water Quality Standards program pursuant to CWA Section 303(c). The Office is also the lead for EPA in its role as a designated trustee for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council (Trustee Council) (40 C.F.R. Section 300.600(b)(5)) pursuant to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. Section 2701 et seq. The Office provides oversight and assistance to EPA Regions and States on programs within the Office’s purview.

View OWOW's Annual Reports.

Mail code: 4501T | EPA mailing addresses
Location: EPA Headquarters at Washington, D.C. Federal Triangle campus
202-566-1146
Email: ow-owow-internet-comments@epa.gov

OWOW Organization

Brian Frazer, Director
Ann Ferrio, Deputy Director

The Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds includes:

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Last updated on November 17, 2025