During a member meeting of the Source Water Collaborative (SWC) on April 22, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water Director Peter Grevatt conveyed his enthusiastic support of source water protection efforts as effective means for improving the quality of drinking water sources. As an additional indication of the importance of the issue at EPA, Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe also took time from his busy Earth Day schedule to address the SWC membership on the importance of source water protection within a comprehensive approach to water quality management. Leveraging existing partnerships, such as the SWC, provides the agency and its federal partners a potentially potent means for achieving additional water quality improvements outside of more direct regulatory efforts that face difficult budgetary and political environments.
AMWA, a member of the SWC since its formation in 2006, continues to work with other members, including EPA, as part of a workgroup evaluating how to achieve increased protection for drinking water sources through better coordination of tools available under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. The SWC also continues to actively sponsor demonstration projects in representative watersheds that serve as case studies for maintaining or improving source water quality. Moving forward, it is expected that the SWC, EPA and other member organizations will increasingly call on AMWA and its member utilities for support and advice on these and other source water protection efforts.