Source Water Protection 101

Source Water Protection 101

www.sourcewatercollaborative.org112

A Healthy Watershed Means Healthy Drinking WaterPhoto credit: Strafford Rivers Conservancy of Dover, NHA Healthy Watershed Means Healthy Drinking WaterPhoto from the Salmon Falls Watershed CollaborativePhoto: the 115-acre Goransson Easement in Wakefield NH. Photo credit: Strafford Rivers Conservancy of Dover, NH2Presentation Outline 1. What is Source Water and Source Water Protection? 2. What are the benefits associated with source water protection? 3. What are potential threats to sources of drinking water?4. What are tools & techniques to protect drinking water sources?5. How can your community protect sources of drinking water? 3www.sourcewatercollaborative.org 1. What is Source Water and Source Water Protection? 2. What are the benefits associated with source water protection? 3. What are potential threats to sources of drinking water?4. What are tools & techniques to protect drinking water sources?5. How can your community protect sources of drinking water?

3What is SOURCE WATER? Why is it so important?Source Water = Drinking Water

Drinking water sources:Surface water (rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs)Ground water (aquifers and springs)Public and Private wellsVibrant community economies and public health depend on good local water quality

4www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgWhere does your drinking water come from?The drinking water that we receive from our local drinking water utilities or individual wells comes from groundwater, streams, rivers, springs or lakes in a watershed. Although most water requires some treatment before use, protecting this source water from contamination saves money [that would be spent on treatment equipment & operation] and is an important part of providing safe drinking water to the public.

Vibrant community economies and public health depend on good local water quality

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EvapotranspirationPumping Well

RechargeAquiferGround Water / Surface Water InteractionStreamLake

PrecipitationPlant UptakeLakeSurface Runoff

55There is a finite amount of water on the earth. Most freshwater is locked up in glaciers, only about 1% of freshwater is surface water, the source where most people get their drinking water (about 30% of freshwater is groundwater, another important source of drinking water, particularly in rural areas). Groundwater occupies the spaces between underground rocks and soil like the spaces in a sponge. Depending on underground soil & rock, groundwater and contaminants can move slowly or more quickly through the spaces.

The water on the earth is used over and over again. The water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, is the continuous movement of water from ocean to air and land then back to the ocean in a cyclic pattern.

Ground water and surface water are often connected. The direction of flow between ground water and surface water may be influenced by a pumping well (drinking water well). Pumping wells are used to extract ground water for use at the surface. A pumping well near a stream or lake may draw water from the stream or lake into the ground water and subsequently into a drinking water supply well. Water may also transfer from surface water to the aquifer by direct infiltration (known as ground water under the direct influence of surface water) through the bottom of a water body. The reverse can also occur as ground water migrates toward and recharges surface water bodies.The inter-relationship between groundwater and surface water means that contamination can migrate between the two. What is SOURCE WATER PROTECTION?

Protect drinking water sources: provide clean, safe water that minimizes treatment expenses, protects public health, and sustains communities.

Many partners: public water systems, community leaders, land-use decision-makers, agricultural & forestry leaders, and the public.Voluntary actions and requirements at local, state, and federal levels that together can keep contaminants from entering sources of drinking water. State source water programs - based on each states water resources and drinking water priorities.

6www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgThe goal of source water protection is to provide clean, safe water that minimizes treatment expenses, protects public health, and sustains local economies.The combined efforts of many partners: public water systems, community leaders, land-use decision-makers, agricultural & forestry leaders, and the public. Approaches to keep contaminants from entering sources of drinking water: a combination, depending on state and local circumstances and priorities, of voluntary actions and local, state, and federal policies and program requirements. Some examples: federal requirements for underground storage tanks can protect underground sources of drinking water from leaks of petroleum or hazardous substances; voluntary participation by farmers in conservation programs can protect downstream and groundwater sources of drinking water from excess nutrients.State source water programs are able to provide more specific information, resources, and assistance for collaborative source water protection efforts and for local communities.

Protecting sources of drinking water depends on local decisions about land use, including development, industrial, wastewater, and agricultural practices, and individual practices such as lawn fertilizer application.6

MONITORING & COMPLIANCECOMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT SOURCE WATER PROTECTION reduce contaminant threats TREATMENT Safe Drinking Water Act Multiple-Barrier Approach77Safe Drinking Water Act Multiple-Barrier ApproachThe Safe Drinking Water Act uses a multiple barrier approach to protect public drinking water supplies. Preventing contamination (source water protection) and treatment at the drinking water plant are part of this approach. It is critical to enhance drinking water protection to address the growing number of possible contaminants.Source water protection can identify and reduce contamination from upstream and nearby sources, and reduce treatment costs at the plant, and to consumers.

Potential Pathways of ContaminationSurface WaterUrban/rural runoff (e.g., stormwater, livestock operations, farm fields, lawns)Ground water infiltrationDirect discharge to water bodies (animal feces, boating, dumping)

Ground WaterInfiltration (e.g., pesticide spills, fertilizer from row crops, animal production, improperly located or maintained septic systems)Injection of contaminantsNaturally occurring substances (e.g., arsenic, radon)

8www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgPotential Pathways of ContaminationContamination of drinking water sources can come from a variety of pathways and contaminants. The first step is identifying the sources of contamination.

Clean water and healthy ecosystems offer other unquantifiable benefits, in terms of the quality of our lives.

This section describes the benefits of preventing drinking water contamination. It describes and compares the costs of contamination and the benefits or costs-avoided due to preventive measures.

Surface water is vulnerable to contamination from both runoff and ground water infiltration. Runoff from surface areas in a watershed, either near a drinking water supply intake or in upstream tributaries, may contain contaminants, including human or animal wastes. In addition, contaminated ground water may recharge streams or lakes spreading the contamination to a surface water source.Groundwater can become contaminated through infiltration from the surface, injection of contaminants through injection wells (including septic systems), or by naturally occurring substances in the soil or rock through which it flows. Depending on the hydrogeologic setting, contaminants in ground water may migrate far from the source and pollute water supplies far away. The properties of the aquifer and overlying soils affect contaminant movement. For example, highly permeable aquifers conduct ground water flow quickly, allowing little time to detect a contamination plume before it reaches a drinking water supply. Contaminant transport in ground water may be affected by physical, chemical, or biological processes between the contaminants, the ground water, and the aquifer materials. For example, some contaminants may be adsorbed onto soil particles within the aquifer or overlying rock layers. Furthermore, different contaminants move at varying rates and persist in the subsurface for different lengths of time. Some organic and inorganic contaminants may be consumed by microbes in the soil in a process known as biodegradation. Wells that are improperly completed or abandoned provide a direct conduit for surface contamination to get to ground water. A properly designed and constructed well includes several features that reduce the risk of contaminating ground water. These include casing to prevent the collapse of the wall of the bore hole; grout to fill the open space left outside the well casing to prevent surface water from entering the well; screens at the intake point to hold back unstable aquifer material; and well head covers or seals at the top of the casing or pipe sleeve to prevent contaminated water from entering the well.

8What Information is Available to Protect Sources of Drinking Water?Source water protection areas: geographic areas around drinking water sources, used to identify and help protect from potential sources of contaminationPotential contaminants/sources: States identified most prevalent, most threateninghttp://water.epa.gov/drink/local/Source Water Protection (SWP) Plans: Some localities have used this information to develop & implement SWP plans

9www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgState source water assessments for each public drinking water system delineation of critical areas around the sources (rivers, lakes, aquifers, springs), assessment of most prevalent and most threatening potential sources of contamination , most completed by 2003. Check this website for your local drinking water information.

Many communities are implementing protection efforts to prevent contamination of their drinking water supplies. These communities, counties, and locally financed water districts have found that the less polluted water is before it reaches the treatment plant, the less extensive and expensive the efforts needed to safeguard the public's health.

9Source Water Protection Area for Surface Water-Based Drinking Water Systems

1910Source Water Protection Area for Surface Water-Based Drinking Water SystemsHow do drinking water systems and states identify potential sources of contamination? Within a delineated area for a pubic water system, they identify potential threats and sources. This is an example, for a surface water source. It shows the watershed above the water supply intake.

Source Water Protection Area for Ground Water-Based Drinking Water Systems

10 year time of travel wells2 year time of travel20www.sourcewatercollaborative.org11Source Water Protection Area for Ground Water-Based Drinking Water SystemsThis is an example of a delineated wellhead area for a public water system using groundwater. The red dots are the wells. An assessment might inventory and field verify all potential sources in the inner radius and rely on available data base information for locations of potential sources in the outer zone.

COMMON POTENTIAL SOURCESof CONTAMINATION to DRINKING WATER12www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgCOMMON POTENTIAL SOURCESof CONTAMINATION to DRINKING WATERReported from State Source Water Assessment dataWastewater Systems (nutrients, bacteria, viruses, pharmaceuticals) Municipal Sanitary Waste Treatment & Disposal Large-Capacity Septics Sewer CollectionSeptic (on-site) Sewage Disposal Systems

Transportation (petroleum products, road salts, chemicals) Airports Railroads/Subways Freeways/Highways Roads/Streets

Commerce/Industrial (petroleum products, organic & inorganic) chemicals, acid mine drainage) Gas Stations Chemical and Petroleum Storage Dry Cleaners MiningImproper Waste Disposal

Agriculture (nutrients, pesticides/herbicides, bacteria, viruses, pharmaceuticals) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Crop Production Fertilizer/Pesticide ApplicationAgriculture Irrigation, Irrigation Wells, Agricultural Artificial Drainage

Residential (nutrients, bacteria, viruses, pesticides/herbicides, petroleum products) Septic Systems Lawn/Garden Care Underground and Aboveground Storage Tanks Fertilizer/Pesticide Application

12State/Local Actions to Protect Sources of Drinking WaterUpdate source water assessments, refine information about potential contaminants/sourcesIdentify priority contaminants and sourcesProvide information for inspection and enforcement programs Develop voluntary partnerships to protect water quality: State Conservationists (NRCS/USDA), conservation districts, watershed groups, recreation groups

13www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgStates (and local water utilities) have key information about sources of drinking water and potential contaminants and contaminant sources, and can share that information with other state and local programs that protect water quality. Conservation programs administered by NRCS have been important in protecting and improving the quality of drinking water sources. Conservation districts are also key partners in protecting sources of drinking water, through work with community leaders and groups in agricultural and developed areas. Groups like Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever share a common interest in protecting water quality.13Actions that Protect Sources of Drinking WaterIdentify land use management and other measures that may be neededPreserve land uses that protect water supplyRegular septic system careAgricultural best conservation practices, e.g. fencing livestock out of streams & providing an alternate water source, fertilizer and manure management, conservation buffers, conservation tillage & crop rotation, drainage water management, efficient irrigation, integrated pest managementForestry best management practices to protect forests that preserve water quality

14www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgActions that Protect Sources of Drinking WaterLand use and stewardship actions at the local level can effectively protect current and future sources of drinking water.Identify land use management and other measures that may be neededPreserve land uses that protect water supply land in agriculture is one example of a land use that can be more protective than some other uses, if best agricultural practices are followedRegular septic system care inspection (every 1-3 years) and pumping (every 3-5 years)Agricultural best conservation practices, e.g. fencing livestock out of streams & providing an alternate water source, fertilizer and manure management, conservation buffers, conservation tillage & crop rotation, drainage water management, efficient irrigation, integrated pest managementForestry best management practices to protect forests that preserve water quality

14Costs of ContaminationDirect CostsTreatment and RemediationWater Supply ReplacementPublic Information Campaigns

Indirect CostsHealth CostsLost ProductivityReduced Revenue for Businesses that Depend on Clean Water: Tourism & Recreation, Food ProcessingLost Economic Development OpportunitiesLost Consumer ConfidenceLoss of Property Value and Tax Revenue

15Costs of ContaminationMany communities are implementing protection efforts to prevent contamination of their drinking water supplies. These communities, counties, and locally financed water districts have found that the less polluted water is before it reaches the treatment plant, the less extensive and expensive the efforts needed to safeguard the public's health. Avoiding contamination protects water supplies for local economies and community health.

Installing treatment can be expensive and result in continued costs for operation and maintenance.

Clean water and healthy ecosystems offer other unquantifiable benefits, in terms of the quality of our lives.

The benefits to communities of protecting their drinking water supplies might best be understood by describing the costs of failing to protect them. These costs include those that are relatively easy to capture in monetary or economic terms and those that are not. Easily quantifiable costs of drinking water supply contamination include:Treatment and remediation;Finding and developing new supplies and providing emergency replacement water;Abandoning a drinking water supply due to contamination;Paying for consulting services and staff time;Litigating against responsible parties;Conducting public information campaigns when incidents arouse public and media interest in source water pollution;Meeting the regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, such as the disinfection byproduct and monitoring requirements;Loss of property value or tax revenue; and Loss of revenue from boating or fishing when a lake or reservoir is used as a drinking water supply.Costs that are not easily quantified include:Health related costs from exposure to contaminated water;Lost production of individuals and businesses, interruption of fire protection, loss of economic development opportunities; andLack of community acceptance of treated drinking water.

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UrgencyTimeProactiveReactivetfU (t) = P x C x $ x AProtecting sources of drinking water is not usually an emergency planning ahead to protect our sources of drinking water can prevent future problems, and better position us to come up with the best solutions. When we are reacting to a problem at the last minute, we have missed earlier, probably less costly and more effective, opportunities. (Slide from Jay Frick of North Carolina Source Water Protection Program).

Prevention is often less costly than responding to contamination with treatment, for example, one community in Wisconsin spent $2.2 million to install a nitrate removal system in one of its well-fields (providing 60% of the communitys water), after nitrate levels failed to decrease.

Now is the time to act. This graph shows that urgency is a time-based function and increases exponentially the longer we wait to act. In a Proactive mode, you have time to analyze and plan and determine a strategy that works. If you choose to do nothing, you eventually pass into the Reactive mode where you have only the ability to solve your problems as they occur (e.g., management by crisis). If you get behind here, you eventually approach a timeframe where problems occur more rapidly than they can possibly be solved.Urgency Graph: And this can be displayed as a graph as you see here. This chart implies that the longer we wait, the much harder it becomes to solve our problems. In other words, our situation becomes much more urgent. Notice there are 2 regions on this graph, proactive and reactive. In the proactive region you have time to plan and to experiment. You can identify solutions before the problems become acute. If you elect to do nothing, you eventually pass into the reactive region. Here you are operating in a management-by-crisis mode, and you only have the expertise and resources to respond to problems as they are occurring. We want to operate in the proactive region. The more we do here, the longer we can stay in this region. Being pro-active allows time for planning, and a collaborative approach to source water protection.

16The Costs of PreventionVary based on the prevention measures selected

Responding to contamination can be much more costly than preventionRemsen, Iowa spent over $700K to purchase farmland for conservation to protect its drinking water from high nitrate levels, vs. over $2M projected cost for new nitrate treatment system

" More than 117 million Americans (over 1/3 of the total US population) get some or all of their drinking water from waters that are not clearly protected right now. Some communities have found that every dollar spent on source water protection saves about $8 to $27 in water treatment costs.Geographic Information Systems Analysis of the Surface Drinking Water Provided by Intermittent, Ephemeral and Headwater Streams in the U.S. Performed by U.S. EPA July, 2009, http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/wetlands/surface_drinking_water_index.cfm

17www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgJanuary 200317The Costs of PreventionPrevention is generally cheaper than responding to contamination. Of course, there are costs associated with preventing contamination of drinking water supplies. The cost to an individual supplier or community greatly depends on the types of preventive measures it chooses to implement. Protective measures can be relatively simple and inexpensive (such as public education programs) to expensive (such as purchasing land or easements). Program costs include staffing; program planning, development, and administration; land or easement purchases; and structural management measures.Constructed management devices such as wetlands and retention basins, can cost approximately $100,000 for a 50-acre site, plus the value of the land they occupy.Housekeeping measures such as street sweeping cost public works departments depending on the frequency at which they are performed. These costs may vary greatly from community to community and place to place, and will depend on such factors as the value of real estate in a particular area and the measures the community selects to protect its water supplies.

Responding to contamination can be as much as 20 times as costly as prevention

" More than 117 million Americans (over 1/3 of the total US population) get some or all of their drinking water from waters that are not clearly protected right now. Some communities have found that every dollar spent on source water protection saves about $8 to $27 in water treatment costs.Geographic Information Systems Analysis of the Surface Drinking Water Provided by Intermittent, Ephemeral and Headwater Streams in the U.S. Performed by U.S. EPA July, 2009, http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/wetlands/surface_drinking_water_index.cfmEPA 813-B-95-005, Benefits and Costs of Prevention: Case Studies of Community Wellhead Protection - Volume 1, March 1996, page ES-3. Found at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ols/catalog/catalog_display.cfm?&FIELD1=SUBJECT&INPUT1=Wellhead%20Protection%20Program&TYPE1=EXACT&item_count=6

This is tricky because you're talking about costs of prevention before folks may know what's involved. Suggest deleting this slide and incorporating 2nd & 3rd bullets in previous slide. We don't really have the data to go into much detail on costs of preventionPotential Partners http://www.sourcewatercollaborative.org/allies/

Federal and State GovernmentState source water programs, Clean Water programs, USDA agriculture and forestry programs, underground storage tank programs, hazardous waste programs (RCRA, Superfund), USGS, Bureau of Land ManagementCounty/Local LevelPublic water systemsPlanning departmentsPublic health programsUSDA county offices: Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), Cooperative ExtensionConservation districtsNon-Governmental OrganizationsWatershed GroupsTrust for Public LandThe Nature ConservancySporting groups, including Pheasants Forever, Ducks UnlimitedTechnical Assistance Providers: Rural Water Associations, Rural Community Assistance Partnership18www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgPotential Partners Effective source water protection often depends on effective partnerships. Here are some examples of the range of possible partners, depending on the land use and source water protection project. For example: effective federal partnerships in an agricultural or forested area have included State source water coordinators and Clean Water Act section 319 coordinators, USDA-NRCS State Conservationists, state/local forest managers, and local watershed or recreation groups. Voluntary agricultural conservation practices have played a key role in protecting drinking water sources in many areas of the country.

Depending on the source of contamination, other partnerships have included regulatory programs that address fuel storage tanks, waste disposal, treating wastewater; emergency responders (to hazmat spills). Partnerships can also include land use decision makers who influence siting of new development, and redevelopment.18

19Source water protection programs and NRCS conservation programs both take a voluntary approach to landowner and operator participation, and are both concerned with protecting water quality. Both have things to offer in a collaboration to protect drinking water sources.

Heres an overview of some things we can offer (depending on timing and the specific project):Assistance with identifying priority areas; Data on possible contaminants and sources; and they can alsoShare source water protection areas, under a confidentiality agreement.Provide baseline monitoring data (of raw source water from water suppliers) or stream surveys (Salmon Falls)

We are interested in identifying opportunities to work with NRCS, in geographic areas where agricultural conservation practices can protect sources of drinking water. Specific NRCS capabilities:Assistance in bringing landowners and operators to the table to hear about conservation practices and NRCS programs where their voluntary participation could help protect sources of drinking water.National Water Quality InitiativeState 590 conservation practice standardsConservation Stewardship Program

19Source Water Protection: Online Tips for Partnering with State Conservationists

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Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative Honored with 2012 U.S. Water Prize

www.sourcewatercollaborative.orgThe national Source Water Collaborative has developed an online Collaboration Toolkit:Protecting Drinking Water Sources through Agricultural Conservation Practices One area of the toolkit that may be of interest to you is this initial list of success stories.For example, Id like to take a moment to mention the great work that State Conservationists Juan Hernandez (2nd from right) and Rick Ellsmore (3rd from left) in Maine and New Hampshire have accomplished in the Salmon Falls Collaborative to lay the foundation for a collaborative initiative to protect drinking water sources they received the US Water Prize in 2012. (http://www.prep.unh.edu/sfwc.htm)20Additional Resources21Mapping tool to identify priority areas for nutrient reduction: epa.gov/nutrientpollution/npdatAnother useful map resource, MyWATERS Mapper: http://watersgeo.epa.gov/mwmTo customize your own source water pamphlet: http://www.yourwateryourdecision.org/Source Water Stewardship: A Guide to Protecting and Restoring Your Drinking Water at http://www.cleanwaterfund.org/publication/source-water-stewardship-guide-protecting-and-restoring-your-drinking-waterExample of local collaboration: http://www.schuylkillwaters.org/Source water protection lessons for high school students: https://www.ffa.org/drinkingwater

Speaker contact information:

There is an array of tools available to assist source water protection efforts at the state and local level (in addition to state-specific information available from the source water protection program).

GIS maps are critical to identifying priority watersheds and sub-watersheds, and have been developed so that sensitive data about the location of drinking water intakes and wellheads is not shared.

To identify priority areas for nutrient reduction: epa.gov/nutrientpollution/npdat

Another useful map resource, My WATERS Mapper: http://watersgeo.epa.gov/mwm/

The Source Water Collaborative developed a tool to customize your own source water pamphlet: http://www.yourwateryourdecision.org/

Source Water Stewardship: A Guide to Protecting and Restoring Your Drinking Water at http://www.cleanwaterfund.org/publication/source-water-stewardship-guide-protecting-and-restoring-your-drinking-water

Example of local collaboration, implementing diverse solutions, including agricultural conservation practices: http://www.schuylkillwaters.org/

Source water protection lessons for high school students: https://www.ffa.org/ffaresources/ffalearn

Speaker contact information:

21"Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you." ~ Wendell Berry22"Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you." ~ Wendell Berry22

Delineation of a Wellhead Protection Area