United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water 4601 EPA 800-F-93-005 September 1993 Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water Mission Legislative Authorities Programs: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ground water and drinking water program establishes and implements regulations to safeguard public water supplies and to control underground injections. The program leads the Agency's effort to implement major components of EPA's "Ground Water Protection Strat- egy for the 1990s." Under this program, the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) and EPA Regional Offices are partners, working with States to adopt and enforce drinking water standards and providing grants and technical assistance to States for ground water protection. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Public Water System Supervision Program The Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) program aims to ensure that public water supplies are free of contamination that may pose a human health risk. The PWSS program includes several activities. First, the program sets drinking water standards. Second, it implements these standards. Finally, it builds capacity among states to implement and comply with the requirements. Drinking Water Standards for Regulated Contaminants EPA sets standards for water quality and requirements for treatment pursuant to the SDWA. Under the PWSS program and State requirements, all systems must comply with these standards and treatment requirements. To foster compliance, EPA and the States provide technical assistance to water systems and take enforcement actions if necessary to ensure that systems comply. To date, OGWDW's Drinking Water Standards Division, with help from the Technical Support Division in Cincinnati, Ohio, has promulgated regulations for 84 con- taminants. Surface Water Treatment Rule Perhaps the most prevalent drinking water problem is the presence of disease- causing microorganisms. To address this problem, the OGWDW program is moving aggressively to implement the Surface Water Treatment Rule, which establishes criteria for filtration and disinfection of surface water systems. Filtra- tion and disinfection protects against pathogens that pose a significant threat to public health. One of these pathogens, giardia, causes severe gastrointestinal illness and can lead to death from dehydration. The requirements for filtration and disinfection should eliminate more than 90,000 cases of illness a year and prevent about 9,000 deaths. ------- OGWDW's new requirements will reduce children's exposure to lead in drinking water Lead Lead in drinking water accounts for approximately 20 percent of the total lead exposure in young children. Therefore, EPA set new standards in 1991 to reduce the level of lead in drinking water. The new Lead Rule requires public water suppliers to evaluate tap water, follow treatment requirements, install or improve corrosion control as needed, and educate the public about how to avoid high lead levels. Enforcement Activities A vigorous enforcement program is critical to meet the Federal compliance goals needed to ensure high- quality water. In 1992, under the direction of the Enforcement and Program Implementation Division, enforcement became a high OGWDW priority. EPA takes enforcement action when States with primaiy enforcement responsibility do not take appropriate action or when EPA is directly responsible for the program's management. OGWDW and the Regions work with States to improve their enforcement au- thorities and actions; they also work to ensure that enforcement is a prominent component of State programs. Public Assistance To assist all drinking water consumers, OGWDW supports several mechanisms to provide information. First, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, provides the Agency with practical and independent advice on all SDWA man- dates. Second, the Safe Drinking Water Hotline responds to over 3,000 calls per month, by answering questions concerning regulations under the SDWA. Third, the Resource Center maintains a database of all drinking water publications, providing documents to requesters and searching databases to assist regulatory development. Ground Water Protection Program A large number of Agency offices outside the Office of Water actually implement EPA's ground water program. Ground water issues are vital to almost every program in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER). OSWER's Office of Solid Waste, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response, Office of Waste Programs Enforcement, and Office of Underground Storage Tanks manage programs to prevent, detect, and clean up ground water contami- nation. Their program activities are mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Com- pensation, and Liability Act. In the Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substance, the Office of Pesticide Programs focuses increasingly on the effect of pesticides on ground water. OGWDW's Ground Water Protection Division (GWPD) coordi- nates programs among these offices through a number of critical initiatives, such as the Ground Water Protection and the Ground Water Monitoring Strategies. ------- Priority Ranking of Ground Water Contamination Sources by Number of States and Territories Reporting Underground Storage Tanks Septic Tanks Municipal Landfills Agricultural Activity Abandoned Hazardous Waste Sites Surface Impoundments Injection Wells Other Landfills Regulated Hazardous Waste Sites Industrial Landfills Land Applications Road Salt Salt Water 1st Priority 2nd Priority 3rd Priority 4th Priority 5th Priority OGWDW's Wellhead Protection Program prevents contamination of public ground water supplies Number of States and Territories (42 Reported) Comprehensive State Ground Water Protec- tion Programs (CSGWPPs) are an important component of the Ground Water Protection Strategy. GWPD developed guidance for States to submit a CSGWPP. CSGWPPs assure that ground water protection efforts are consistent across the nation, but they still allow States the flexibility to address their unique resource management needs. Developing Ground Water Indicators OGWDW developed a set of ground water indicators to monitor national and State ground water protection efforts. The ground water indicators cover the following areas: public drinking water supplies; hazardous waste sites; municipal and industrial waste sites; and area-wide sources of nitrate and pesticide contamination. The indicators are ————^——— useful for each State to develop its State Water Quality Report for the biennial National Water Quality Inventory Report to Congress. OGWDW sponsored State pilot projects in New Jersey, Minnesota, and Idaho to refine the current indicators. Administer Wellhead Protection Program Established by Section 1428 of the 1986 Amendments to the SDWA, the Wellhead Protection (WHP) Program aims to protect public ground water supplies from contamination, thereby, preventing costly remediation. The WHP Program facilitates ground water resource management. It does not prescribe a limited set of activities or impose requirements for specific sources of contamination. Thus, the theory underlying the program differs substantially from most Agency pro- grams. OGWDW is sponsoring a series of WHP pilot projects to demon- strate unique and/or transferable applications to support WHP manage- ment decisions. States are required to develop and submit WHP Pro- grams to EPA for approval. Sole-Source Aquifer Protection Program The 1986 Amendments to the SDWA added a new Section 1427 that establishes procedures to develop, implement, and assess "demonstra- tion programs designed to protect critical aquifer areas located within areas designated as sole or principal source aquifers under Section 1424(e) of this Act." This Section allows areas with a designated sole source aquifer to apply for demonstration program funds to plan, implement and evaluate innovative management approaches to protect ground water quality. Although Congress has not appropriated funding for the demon- stration program, EPA established criteria to identify critical aquifer protection areas. OGWDW tracks the designation status of sole source aquifers. ------- Ground Water as a Source for Domestic Supply* *(As a Percentage of State Population) James R. Elder Office Director Peter Cook Deputy Office Director James M. Conlon Director Drinking Water Standards Division Robert Blanco Director Enforcement and Program Implementation Division Ramona Trovato Director Ground Water Protection Division Alan Stevens Director Technical Support Division (Cincinnati, OH) Underground Injection Control Program Mandated by the SDWA, the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program protects under- ground sources of drinking water (USDWs) from contamination which may be caused by injection well operations. The program covers five "classes" of injection wells, for which OGWDW's UIC Branch develops regulatory requirements. For example, the UIC Branch developed regula- tions for Class I hazardous waste wells pursuant to RCRA as amended by the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments. The Branch is cur- rently developing regulations for Class V wells, which include cesspools, drywells, and septic system wells. The Branch is also revising Class II regulations for wells associated with the en- hanced recovery of hydrocarbons and disposal of oil-field brines. In accordance with UIC "~™~™>~1™™™111™1''"™™1™"1~~——— regulations, well owners and operators must construct and operate their wells so as to protect USDWs from contamination. They must also comply with reporting require- ments that are designed to determine whether well owners and operators are in compliance with all other requirements. The UIC program is highly decentral- ized. EPA allows States to implement the UIC program, if they demonstrate their programs meet all minimum Federal requirements. EPA Regional offices directly implement the UIC program in States that do not have UIC "primacy." The UIC Branch allocates funds to the Regions, which review grants to support UIC program activities in primacy States. The Branch also provides States with technical support, including programmatic guidance and data management. The Regions and States are primarily responsible for compliance monitoring and enforcement actions, when an owner or operator fails to comply. The UIC Branch collects quarterly summary enforcement and compliance information, as well as permitting and resource information, to facilitate enforcement activities. For more information, contact: Charlene E. Shaw Program Coordinator (202) 260-2285 or the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800) 426-4791 ------- |