SWAP Introduction

Source Water Assessment Program
Introduction

The 1996 Amendments to the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act initiated the Source Water Assessment Program (see section 1453 of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Appendix I). The 1996 Amendments required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish a guidance document to benefit States in developing a Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP). The guidance outlines the main requirements and offers flexibility to State’s to individualize their SWAPs (USEPA, August 1997).

The State of Nebraska Legislature passed LB517 in 1997, giving the responsibility for developing and implementing a SWAP to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ). The Ground Water Section at NDEQ already administers the Wellhead Protection (WHP) Program, and the SWAP will be coordinated out of that section as well.

This is the official submittal of the Source Water Assessment Program for the State of Nebraska. Although this is the official submittal, it is very important to NDEQ that it remain readable to the general public. A very strong effort has been made to gain public involvement in the development of the Source Water Assessment Program. This submittal has been written with the public in mind, and could be used to inform and educate individuals and Public Water Supply Systems (PWSSs) about the SWAP.

NDEQ has completed the SWAP description and will deliver it to USEPA in Kansas City by early February of 1999. Approval of Nebraska’s SWAP from USEPA should occur by November, 1999. Upon approval of the program NDEQ will begin writing rules and regulations. NDEQ will involve stakeholders in the development of those rules and regulations.

The program description reflects the input from people from across Nebraska. It was written to be a “public” document, in a readable, straight-forward format. It is being presented in three parts:

Main SWAP description,
Appendices, important to the SWAP description, and
Attachments, important to EPA in evaluating the public input NDEQ used when developing the program (this part is available to the public upon request).

1.1 Basic Requirements for the SWAP

This submittal explains how the requirements for the SWAP will be completed in Nebraska. The main requirements for each State’s Source Water Assessment Program are as follows:

delineation of sources of public drinking water - either Wellhead Protection Areas (for ground water systems) or Watershed Delineation Areas (for systems that use surface water),
inventory of potential contaminant sources,
a susceptibility analysis of the system to contamination,
and, making the Source Water Assessment available to the public.
Additionally, the program must be developed with “stakeholder” involvement from across the state.

Delineation and Inventory are two steps in the Wellhead Protection Program that are also in the SWAP. Any wellhead protection areas (WHPA) that are delineated or inventories that have been done will be used in Nebraska’s SWAP. This will be a very important component in completing the assessments in a timely manner. Nebraska has a small number of PWSSs with surface water as the source of drinking water. The majority of the systems will need WHPAs drawn.

A checklist was developed by EPA to determine if all vital aspects of a State’s Source Water Assessment Program have been addressed. NDEQ feels all of these points have been addressed. The completed checklist with references to pertinent sections of the SWAP description is included in Appendix J.

1.2 Goal For Nebraska’s SWAP

The goal of the Nebraska Source Water Assessment Program is,

“To develop information which enables public water supply owners, consumers, and others to initiate and/or promote actions to protect their drinking water sources.”

As part of the assessment, NDEQ will provide the following information to each of the state’s approximately 1400 Public Water Supply Systems:

A map of the Wellhead Protection Area (WHPA) or Watershed Delineation Area (WDA).
A list of potential contaminant sources found in the database search and their locations. Guidance and training is available to help PWSSs conduct a more detailed “on-the-ground” contaminant source inventory.
A vulnerability/susceptibility analysis
A list of options for making the material available to the public.

1.3 Time Table for Implementing and Completing SWAP

The following priority will be made for PWSSs:

System Type	Priority	Approximate Number of Systems in Nebraska *
Community	1st	~ 620
Non- Transient, Non-Community	2nd	~ 184
Transient, Non-Community	3rd	~ 549

* most recent numbers from NHHS web site, www.hhs.state.ne.us/pws (12/8/99)

The following is a very rough estimate of the number of Assessments that may be completed each year for the SWAP. Much of this depends on progress in the WHP program, progress in the Integrated Information System being developed and implemented by the Data Processing Section at NDEQ, the availability of other databases from other agencies, the ability to contract out some aspects of the SWAP, and other unforeseen events. NDEQ will report progress to EPA through biannual reporting.

End of Calendar Year	Approximate Number of Assessments Anticipated to be Done	Running Total
1999	100	100
2000	300	400
2001	300	700
2002	500	1200
May, 2003	200	1400

The Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF) Intended Use plan for Nebraska specifies that 10% (approximately 1.2 million dollars) may be set aside from the Capitalization grant for the SWAP. This set aside will be used over a five year period, for personnel, computers, training, travel, contracts, equipment, and incidentals (see Appendix A for NDEQ - EPA workplan for using this money).

1.4 Public Water Supply Systems in Nebraska

All Public Water Supply Systems (PWSSs) are covered under the Nebraska Safe Drinking Water Act administered by the Nebraska Health and Human Services (NHHS). The following chart indicates the different types of PWSSs in the State of Nebraska. The information was provided by the Nebraska Health and Human Services (NHHS).

system type	definition	examples
Community	25 people or more, 15 or more service connections, year round	City of Lincoln, mobile home parks
Non-Transient, Non-Community	25 people or more, 15 or more service connections, 6 months	rural schools
Transient, Non-Community	25 people or more, 15 or more service connections, 60 days	rest areas, State Parks, rural cafe

These definitions are from Title 179, NAC 2, Regulations Governing Public Water Supply Systems, Section 001 (NHHS, 1998).

As mentioned above, there approximately 1400 PWSSs in Nebraska. The total population of Nebraska is about 1.6 million people, of which about 1.2 million rely on publically supplied drinking water. The following chart shows how the population is split up between the different sizes of Community PWSSs.

As can be seen, 398 (64%) of Nebraska’s Community PWSSs serve 500 people or less and only 13 systems serve more than 10,000 people. The “average” Nebraska system serves 991 people. Nebraska’s two largest systems are Lincoln and Omaha. Lincoln serves over 210,000 people and Omaha (Metropolitan Utilities District) serves over 500,000 people, which includes several small nearby communities.

The vast majority of Nebraska’s PWSSs are ground water based. All Non-Community systems (~719) are ground water based. NDEQ estimates, with information from NHHS, that there are less than fourteen Community PWSSs that use surface water partially, entirely, or buy water from surface water systems. Some of theses systems have inflitration wells or wells that have been deemed “Ground Water Under the Direct Influence” of surface water.

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