Arkansas Department of Health
Center for Local Public Health - Environmental Health Branch - Engineering Section

SOURCE WATER PROTECTION PROGRAM

I. Introduction and Executive Summary

PURPOSE

The purpose in establishing the Arkansas Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) is two-fold:

1) The fulfillment of the source assessment requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996. Under Section 1453 of the SDWA Amendments, each State shall submit to the EPA Administrator for approval, "a source water assessment program within the State’s boundaries." The State "shall carry out the program either directly or through delegation." This is to be done "for the protection and benefit of public water systems and for the support of monitoring flexibility."

 

2) To provide another means to enhance the Arkansas Department of Health’s (ADH’s) continuing efforts to protect public drinking water supply sources under the State's Public Water Supply Supervision Program (PWSSP). Under the PWSSP, source protection through regulation, education, and technical assistance is an integral program component.

The SWAP will be implemented as a part of the current PWSSP.

This project will develop a management tool for public water systems to enhance the protection of their source of drinking water. This plan will identify sources of drinking water utilized by public water systems, source water assessment areas for drinking water supplies, and potential contaminants within distinct delineated areas. Providing public water systems and their customers with information concerning their drinking water supply will enable them to implement protection activities. Such activities can help to assure a continued safe drinking water supply and in some cases limit capital expenditures for treatment.

SCOPE

The State of Arkansas has approximately 1509 individual public drinking water sources (this number changes frequently). Included in this total are 205 surface sources (68 impoundments, 32 rivers/streams, 30 springs and 75 GWUDI wells) and 1304 ground water sources. Each of these sources will be assessed to determine their vulnerability to contamination.

PLAN

The Arkansas SWAP is a program to establish a methodology to perform vulnerability assessments in an effort to provide information / data to water systems, customers, and government agencies. The information / data will be pertinent to promoting drinking water source protection programs. The vulnerability assessment is a multi-step process consisting of source location, delineation of source water assessment areas, potential contaminant identification, and a susceptibility analysis. The culmination of the Vulnerability Assessment will result in a designation of low, medium, or high source susceptibility. Within a delineated assessment area, each Potential Source of Contamination (PSOC) will be identified, categorized according to its relative public health significance, proximity to the drinking water source intake, and mapped.

We have entered into an agreement with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to perform database and Geographical Information System (GIS) development. Each water source will have an assessment area delineated and potential sources of contamination to that source located and mapped. Each water source will then be assessed to determine its susceptibility to those contaminants. The USGS will provide the results of their susceptibility analysis and other data to the Arkansas Department of Health. All the data, maps, and the susceptibility analysis will be compiled and summarized. A report will be generated and sent to each public water system for dissemination to their customers. Copies of each summary report will also be placed on the Internet on the ADH Division of Engineering’s Site at http://www.HealthyArkansas.com/eng/swpframe.htm which is the Source Water Protection Program Home Page.

VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT

The vulnerability assessment will consist of the delineation of source water assessment areas, a contaminant inventory, and a susceptibility analysis in which each source will receive a low, medium or high susceptibility designation. It is our intent to phase the assessment process in such a fashion as to meet the deadlines that we are confronted with and provide an assessment that will be meaningful. Phase 1 Assessments, to be completed by the statutory deadline, will provide completed assessments that will allow the initiation of local source water protection plans and provide a priority ranking system for the refinement of the assessments on a continuing basis, or Phase 2 Assessments. (Phase 2 Assessments are summarized in the section titled "Protection Programs and Phase 2 Assessments".)

DELINEATION METHODS

The preferred mechanism for source protection area determinations is to use a delineation methodology that would incorporate site specific information, including such items as hydrologic and geologic information for all sources. The problem encountered in trying to (1) evaluate delineation methodologies and (2) perform extensive investigations into the location and content of all available data sources lies with time constraints and the lack of resources. The Arkansas SWAP will incorporate delineation methods that have been presented to and accepted by the technical and citizens advisory committees. These methods were presented and accepted through the public hearing process. The delineation methods used will utilize a systematic approach specific to each source type. This approach will enable systems to establish protection programs specific to their source, customer needs, and / or concerns.

CONTAMINANT INVENTORY

An inventory of potential contaminants will be performed for each assessment area. Consultations were held with all pertinent agencies / divisions that manage PSOCs or have existing PSOC databases. We have evaluated the data types, data locations, quality of data, data availability, and status of documentation. Existing location data (if deemed adequate), Global Positioning System (GPS) methods for field verification of locations, or map verification of locations may be used for locating the PSOCs. The inventory will consist of PSOCs that are categorized by their relative public health significance and proximity to the drinking water source intake.

SUSCEPTIBILITY ANALYSIS

An analysis of the susceptibility of the source water to contamination will be performed for each public water supply. The intrinsic characteristics of each source will be evaluated to determine the sensitivity of the source. The factors that will be considered in the evaluation of the intrinsic sensitivity will include hydrologic factors, soil conditions, aquifer characteristics, the local geology and other factors deemed necessary on a case-by-case basis. In the case of wells, above- and below-ground construction conditions will be considered in the overall susceptibility evaluation. Contaminants within the assessment area will be incorporated into the overall analysis. Their location with respect to the source, and the hazard they present, will be considered to determine if the source is susceptible to contamination at a level that may be of public health significance. Potential sources of contamination that are outside the delineated assessment area may be incorporated into the susceptibility analysis and/or vulnerability assessment at the discretion of the State dependant upon the prevalent topographical and hydrogeologic characteristics of the area.

REPORTING RESULTS

We will provide a completed assessment report(s) to each public water system with a source. The water system must advise their customers of the availability of the assessment report(s). We expect to make data available over the Internet and provide copies upon individual request, as appropriate. The notices of the availability of the final vulnerability assessment also will be reported to water system customers, government agencies, and others via the Internet, and public postings at post offices and public libraries.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND OUTREACH

In the developmental process of the Arkansas Source Water Assessment Plan, advisory committees, both technical and citizens were utilized. The committees met independently four times and together twice. The makeup of the committees was diverse and provided helpful insight and assistance in the plan development. In addition to the use of the advisory committees, five public meetings were held across the state to present the plan to the public and take comments. Articles concerning the SWAP appeared in various newsletters with statewide distribution. Presentations of the information concerning the SWAP have also been made at three statewide annual conferences. A press release has been prepared and widely distributed via media outlets.

PROTECTION PROGRAMS AND PHASE 2 ASSESSMENTS

Program activities will be refined and continue to evolve past the statutory deadline as Program Staff assist communities and water systems to develop local watershed and wellhead protection programs. The assessment process should provide information needed by local groups or agencies to develop local source water protection plans that focus their resources to the areas of greatest need. Each local plan may be customized to the particular area and the hazards, both actual and potential, contained therein.

The ADH will assist local governments in the voluntary development of their local source water protection plan(s). Such a plan may include ordinances enacted at the local level, as well as other local options for reducing the threat of drinking water source contamination within the assessment area. In addition, new and / or existing activities with contamination potential within this assessment area will be noted by the ADH and / or the local government and passed on to other involved State agencies for their consideration in permitting or other regulatory activities.

Phase 2 Assessments will utilize the priority ranking system developed by Phase 1 as well as requests for assistance from water systems. These assessments may include any or all of the following:

Assessment of the entire watershed within the State boundary for rivers and impoundments and recharge basins for springs

Expand and / or refine the assessment area utilizing more detailed site specific data

On-site inspections of PSOCs to more accurately evaluate site conditions and locations

Evaluation of individual PSOCs to determine the likelihood of contaminant release and its actual public health significance

Re-evaluation and updating of the data used to determine the source’s intrinsic susceptibility

Incorporation of any other new information obtained

For information on the national level, try EPA's Source Water Protection site