Source water protection is an issue of great importance to the entire drinking water community and is a primary component of the multiple-barrier approach to drinking water supply. The quality of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and groundwaters used as sources for drinking water can be threatened by many everyday activities and land uses, ranging from municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastes to the chemicals applied to suburban lawns. Maintaining and improving the quality of these water sources is a logical, prudent, and often economical approach that can provide numerous benefits for protecting public health, reducing treatment challenges and costs, for responding to the uncertainties represented by the growing number of microbiological and chemical contaminants, and for general environmental stewardship.

This presentation will provide an overview of source water protection in the United States, as well as specifics from select case studies, and will include the following:

• An outline of the history of source water protection in the U.S.A.
• Description of the required Source Water Assessment Programs (SWAPs), and a summary of completed SWAPs
• Development and implementation of successful source water protection plans and programs
• Current and emerging issues for source water protection
• Reference resources for the above topics

Some of the current and emerging challenges to be addressed in the presentation include prioritizing actions for moving from source water assessment to protection; developing applicable tools and techniques; identifying funding resources; fostering partnerships for cooperative approaches; improving integration between the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act; furthering the watershed approach; and addressing emerging contaminants and contaminant sources (e.g., air deposition).

The author is a member and former Chair of the AWWA Source Water Protection Committee and a member of the planning committee for the 2005 AWWA Source Water Protection Symposium (Palm Beach, FL). He also was Chair of the 2003 AWWA Source Water Protection Symposium (Albuquerque, NM), and served on the planning committee for the 2003 U.S.EPA National Source Water Protection Conference (Washington, D.C.).