Class notes/October 7

pick a water project or water situation
explain what the problem is and SWOT
what solutions have been tried
what do you recommend?
10 page double spaced.

Miami is a soul source aquifer
Florida has 5 water management districts
South Florida buys up a fair amount of land to try to restore the system.
Regional management districts are autonomous.

Lots of local shortage issues projected all over the country

Tampa
Seawater desalination plant

SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT 1974 and amendments

purpose: to reduce contaminants in public drinking water supplies
the act enabed the EPA to:

1. set national ddrinking water quality standards,
2. require water quality monitoring, water treatemnet, and the public reporting of contaminants in drinking water systems
3. fund source water protection programs to protect watersheds, aquifers, and wellheads, from potential contamination and
4. band the underground injection of hazardous wastes

Safe Drinking Water Act

• The EPA has the authority to regulate some 170,000 public water systems that provide 90% of the nation's drinking water. It is the responsibility of these systems to provide and adequate water supply of potable water to meet the present and projected future needs in the communities they serve.
• This acts as an incentive for private water departments to expand (bad idea)

SDWAII

• Public water systems also include more than 100,000 noncommunity water systems serving at least 25 people daily for six months or more a year primarily at larger business, recreational, and public sites and buildings.
• Only private water systems serving fewer than 25 people are not regulated by the EPA. Owners of individual wells supplying homes and small businesses need to test their own wells.

The SDWA established mandatory maximum contaminant levels for 90 drinking water contaminants (risk based standards)
The EPA also set secondary standards on heavy metals,
....

Surface Water Treatment Rules

• Nearly all communities that rely on surface water or surface influenced groundwater must filter and disinfect their water before it is distributed (except NYC)
• These new standards have resulted in many smaller communities abandoning their surface water or surface water influenced sources and seeking out new groundwater sources, to avoid the costs of building a filtration plant.

Wellhead Protection and Sourve Water Assessment and Protection

• The wellhead protection program requires each state to develop a program to protect the areas for community water supplies
• States must also develop source water assessment and progtectionprograms that address not only the well head areas but entire watersheds. SWAP programs require states to assess both surface and groundwater drinking water sources that serve public water systems.
• SWAP plans must include strategies for source water protection, including purchase of land or conservaiton easements and the implementation of wellhead protection ordinances and other land use planning techniques to signify limit new development and other potential sources of contamination near water supplies
• The EPA may designate a groundwater supply as a sole source aquifer for a city or area. If a federally funded project has the potential to pollute a sole source aquifer, the protect must undergo a stringent review.
• Setbacks (wetlands and streams, floodplanes)
• Future Infrastructure Needs
• The reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996 included 9.6 billion in EPA grants to state and local governments and public water systems States have used the drinking water state revolving fund
  
• In 1997 the EPA estimated that community water systems would require investments of 138 billion between 1994 and 2014 to meet SDWA requirements for water quality.

Enforcement

• Most states have primary enforcement authority for the Safe Drinking Water Act. But the EPA has the power to enforce the ACT if a state does not to a proper job of enforcing the ACT states mus:
• maintain an inventory of the public water systems
• conduct sanitary surveys of public water systems
• collect annual compliance reports from public systems
• certify lab testing of public water quality
• ensure that new or modified systems comply with the state drinking water regs
• require public water systems to keep records and report violations
• assess fines for violations
• require emergency response plans for public water systems
• certify operators of public water systems.

You see with all of the Acts that there isn't a consistent level of regulation and enforcement across states.

Nitrates--> New Baby Syndrome