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SOURCE WATER PROTECTION WHAT CAN PLANNERS DO? By Gary L. VanDerSlice, P.G. Source Water Protection Specialist A Basic Question to Ask Yourself Do you know the locations of your community's most vulnerable drinking water sources and highest contaminant threats? You can't protect your most critical assets if you don't know where they are. If you are like most county and municipal planners in Colorado, you do not know these things. However, help is on the way. Statewide Source Water Assessments In the Fall of 2004,the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Water Quality Control Division will issue a source water assessment report to each Public Water System (PWS) in Colorado for their specific water sources. This is the first time ever that statewide source water assessments have been conducted. My perspective on the source water assessment and protec- tion (SWAP) program is somewhat unique, because I was the prime contractor's program manager for these exciting projects that have never been done before. For the last several years, I invested over 7,000 hours of time in the source water assess- ments of all public water systems throughout Colorado and Oklahoma. What You Need to KnowAbout The Assessments Performing the assessments on a statewide basis for over 2,000 PWSs in Colorado was a large undertaking. There are many good things about the assessments as well as some bad things. The Good News: A wealth of information has been gener- ated regarding our drinking water sources. These assessments evaluated each PWS water source (wells and intakes),the aquifers that they draw from, the watersheds that drain to them, and the potential contaminant sources (facilities and land uses) within the source water areas. A robust software program has been developed to predict which water sources have the highest susceptibility to contaminants. The assessment reports for each PWS will predict which specific water sources are the most vul- nerable to contaminants and which contaminant threats in the source area represent the highest risk. Down the road, because conditions change with time, I understand that the State plans to deliver future assessment updates every three to five years. The Bad News: The assessments are only as good as the data going into the analysis, and there certainly is much room for data 22 improvement. Hundreds of variables have been evaluated for thousands of the water sources. So, as you can imagine, some improvements to the input data are needed for the majority of water sources. Many data gaps (e.g., unknown well depths, un- known contaminant hazards and site- specific conditions, etc.) had to be filled with default values, but the future assessments can be much improved if the data gaps are filled. While the as- sessments present much very useful information,just be aware of their limitations. The State will send the source water assessment reports only to the PWSs, and not to the local planning agencies or lo- cal health departments. It will be up to the PWSs to share any security- sensitive information with other parties at their discre- tion. [But, let's face it, who "needs to know" more than the local government agencies in the PWSs source area ?] The Next Step - Beyond the Initial Assessments While these statewide "assessments" were mandatory under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the "protection" of our water re- sources is strictly voluntary. As you can guess,voluntary probably means that most communities won't do it unless they have to, or unless they have a lot of help in doing it. It is my goal, and chal- lenge, to help communities to efficiently move from the source water assessment phase of SWAP to the protection phase. Most communities agree that source water protection is important, but I keep hearing that it is not urgent in most com- munities (until after their water quality has been impacted). But to quote Ben Franklin, one of the best reasons for source water protection is that "an ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure." Although much work is needed on the local level,there will be huge benefits to communities that take the effort to imple- ment protection measures: • Protection of Public Health • Protection of the Environment • Economic Benefits to the Community (protection of property values) • Public Confidence in their Drinking Water Quality Another key reason for maintaining high quality in the raw (untreated) source water is that many contaminants (e.g., estro- gen and pharmaceuticals) cannot be removed by the treatment i process. This is disturbing. Currently, I'm working on grant- funded projects to develop source water protection plans for a handful of Colorado's com- munities,and it is quite clear that they need the help of land use managers and government policy makers. ,t (continued on page 22)