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Source Water Assessment Program
Source Water Assessment Program
The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 required states to perform a source water assessment for each and every public water system--ranging from large municipal systems having many interconnected wells, or receiving water from a vast watershed, to a system with a single well, serving, for example, a rural diner. Private, domestic sources of drinking water are not addressed in this program but will benefit indirectly. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Program is providing the major funding for the assessment program.
The source water assessments consist of three components:
- A delineation of the area over which water flows to a well or an intake. This area is generally known as the "source water area". For a well, this area is also known as the "wellhead protection area", and for a surface water intake, the area is typically a watershed.
- An inventory of significant potential (or actual) sources of pollution within the source water area (for example, landfills, underground storage tanks).
- An estimate of how susceptible the water system is to the potential pollution sources identified in the assessment. The susceptiblity of a ground water system, for example, depends in part on the geologic setting of the well.
The states in Region 2 have completed their assessments, which are summarized
in the Consumer Confidence Reports or Annual Water Quality Reports that
communty water systems are required to send their customers. The source
water assessments are available as follows:
New Jersey 
New York: From County Health Departments
Puerto Rico
The source water assessments will provide a rational basis for future
source water protection efforts. The assessments may be used by state
and local agencies to prioritize source water protection activity and
insure that systems that are more susceptible to contamination receive
more immediate financial assistance.