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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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