February, 2001

Protecting and Investing in Your Water Supply

When a local public water supplier suddenly discovered volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the raw water supply, the first question was, "Where did it come from?" The well field, consisting of 12 wells that were constructed in the 1960's, had never been a problem. Suddenly, a problem existed and it greatly affected the system's capacity.

However, within several hours, the system had identified the source. Solving a problem so quickly came about only because of the Source Water Protection Program developed and implemented by the system several months prior. By utilizing the site-specific source water protection report, an abandoned storage tank upgradient from the well field was immediately identified as the culprit. A leaking underground storage tank at an abandoned gasoline station had unknowingly released approximately 3,000 gallons of gasoline. The release contaminated four wells with constituents such as benzene and toluene. The remedial action cost over $2 million.

While the Source Water Protection Program would not have prevented the spill, it certainly provided a valuable tool for immediately identifying the problem and assuring something like this did not occur again.

Because no two communities are alike in terms of hydrogeologic conditions, resources, or problems, source water protection efforts need to be tailored specifically to meet the needs of each community.

Source Water Protection
A Source Water Protection Program has a straightforward objective: to prevent the pollution of ground water, lakes, rivers, and streams that provide communities with their drinking water. Safe drinking water is an essential resource for public health, safety, and economic growth. It's the first line of defense in keeping water safe to drink.

Source water protection supports local drinking water programs in four significant areas:

• protecting public health;
• maintaining the confidence of your system's customers;
• saving your system money in future treatment and other federal and state compliance costs; and,
• generating support for local rate increases when they become absolutely necessary.

Benefits
The value of investing in source water protection is perhaps best understood by calculating the cost of dealing with a contaminated water supply. Easily captured contamination costs include those associated with: water treatment; remediation; location of new water supplies; and litigation costs to name a few.

Communities with effective source water protection programs realize substantial savings in the cost of complying with Safe Drinking Water Act regulations and federal monitoring requirements.

Implementation of a protection program, for instance, could help water systems avoid costs related to compliance with the Disinfection By-products Rule B cleaner source water simply requires less disinfection, thereby reducing the costs for removing disinfection by-products.

Water suppliers with source water protection in place may also be eligible for waivers from monitoring requirements that, in turn, would reduce monitoring costs. Funding A number of state and federal funding opportunities for local systems exist. Few communities have the time, resources, or expertise to pursue funding options and implement successful Source Water Protection Programs. Leggette, Brashears & Graham, Inc. can provide the expertise to determine appropriate funding options and successfully implement protection measures to protect local drinking water supplies.