Wnat You Can Do to Protect Your Drinking Water
Photo by Tim McCabe, Natural Resources Conservation Semic
Be Involved!
• Attend public hearings on land use and permit-
ting. Ask for an environmental impact statement.
Ask questions about specific plans to potect your
water source. Participate in state and water
system funding decisions.
• Volunteer to monitor water quality upstream from
your water source. If your water source is a river,
lake or stream, you can call your state to find out
how well the Clean Water Act standards for your
drinking water source protect your drinking water.
• Support your local utilities.
Be Observant!
• Look for announcements in the local media for activities that could pollute your source water.
• Report any suspicious activities in or around your water supply to local authorities
or call 91 1 immediately.
Be Informed!
• Read the annual Consumer Confidence Report provided by your public water system.
• Learn about potential threats to your water from your state's
Source Water Assessment
• Find out whether Clean Water Act standards protect your
drinking water source.
Don't Contaminate!
• Reduce or eliminate pesticide application.
• Reduce the amount of trash you create.
• Recycle used oil.
• Reduce paved areas.
• Keep pollutants away from boat marinas and waterways.
Unfold this brochure for an illustration
the risks and barriers that affect drinking water.
A Message from the Administrator
Christine Todd Whitman
I believe water is the biggest
environmental issue we face in
the 2 1 st Century in terms of
both quality and quantity. In
the 30 years since its passage,
the Clean Water Act has
dramatically increased the
number of waterways that are once again safe for
fishing, swimming, and drinking. Despite this great
progress in reducing water pollution, many of the
nation's waters still do not meet water quality goals.
I challenge you to join President Bush and me to
finish the business of restoring and protecting our
nation's waters for present and future generations.
Por More Information
For more information, contact EPA's Safe
Drinking Water Hotline at 1 -800-426-479 1 or visit
www.epa.gov/safewater.
may also contact:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (4606-M)
Washington, DC 20460
Printed on recycled paper.
Cover: water tower photo by Lynn Belts,
Natural Resources Conservation Service
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
EPA816-F-02-012 • July 2002
In celebration of the 30th anniversary
I of the Clean Water Act, EPA presents
Protect
Your Drinking
Water
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Protect Your Drinking Water
We relu on a safe and abundant
water supply for the health of our
families and communities.
What is the Source of Our Water
Supply?
If you live in a large city, your source of drinking
water is probably a lake, river, or reservoir. If you
live in a rural area, your source water may be
ground water. In any case, your drinking water
starts its journey to your tap from a watershed.
A watershed is the land area that drains to a
single body of surface water or to ground water.
Everything that happens in the watershed can
affect the quality of your water supply.
Did uou know?
^s
• Americans drink more
than one billion glasses
of tap water per day.
• Children in the first
6 months of life
consume seven times
as much water per
pound as the average
American adult.
What Happens in a Watershed That
Can Affect Drinking Water?
Our drinking water resources are constantly under
siege from multiple threats that directly affect water
quality. Some are naturally occurring: storms,
floods, fires. Most are caused by us: our activities
at home, work, and play.
SlORMWATER RUNOFF is the single biggest threat
to the health of our waterways. As this water
washes over roofs, pavement, farms, and grassy
areas, it picks up fertilizers, pesticides, litter, etc.,
and deposits them in surface water and ground
water. Here are some of the multiple threats that
we cause through activities in our watershed.
Every Year:
• We apply 67 million pounds of pesticides that
contain toxic and harmful chemicals to our
lawns.
• We produce more than 230 million tons
of municipal solid waste—approximately
5 pounds of trash or garbage per person per
day—that contain bacteria, nitrates, viruses,
synthetic detergents, and household chemicals.
• Nearly half a million of our animal factory
farms produce 130 times the amount of Waste
of the human population and are a potential
source of bacteria, viruses, nitrates, and animal
steroids.
• The more than 12 million of our recreational
and house boats and 10,000 boat marinas
release solvents, gasoline, detergents, and raw
sewage directly into waterways.
Multiple Risks Require Multiple
Barriers.
The best barrier against pollution is PREVENTION.
Keeping contaminants out of the drinking water
source protects the environment and reduces the
need for costly treatment. Your state is in the
process of identifying sources of drinking water
and potential threats so that your community can
take appropriate steps to protect the watershed.
After contaminants get into the source water, the
best barrier is RlSK MANAGEMENT. Your public
water system is the first line of defense. Water utili-
ties treat nearly 34 billion gallons of water every
day. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires them
to collect and treat water, hire trained and qualified
operators, and have an emergency response plan in
case of natural disaster or terrorist attack.
RISK AND COMPLIANCE MONITORING is another
important barrier to protect drinking water
resources. Your community constantly monitors
water quality at the source, at the treatment plant
after it has been treated and disinfected, at the
distribution system, which delivers water through
pumps and pipes to your home, and, in some
cases, at the tap.
- .enow:
In North America, the total miles of
water pipeline and aqueducts equal
approximately one million miles—
enough to circle the globe 40 times.
Funding and technical assistance can help systems
provide safe drinking water. If all these efforts
fail, enforcement actions can be taken against the
system.
The INDIVIDUAL ACTION BARRIER that makes the
other three barriers work is — you, and what you
decide to do. Look to the next page for a variety of
actions that you can take.
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