Wisconsin’s Source Water Assessment Program

As a result of the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, all states were required to complete source water assessments for all public water systems. DNR produced these assessments during the period between 1999 and 2003.

These original source water assessment reports were provided to each public water system and included:

1. a brief description of Wisconsin’s Source Water Assessment Program;
2. a map of the system’s source water assessment area(s) and the potential contaminant sources within those area(s);
3. a susceptibility determination based on presence of potential contaminant sources and other factors such as well construction, intake location and geology; and
4. recommendations for source water protection.

Source waster assessments are regularly updated for all public water system wells, with emphasis on evaluation of potential contaminant sources and updates to source water assessment area boundaries. Source water assessments are components of the public water system sanitary survey process and public water system monitoring requirements are regularly evaluated based on updates to contaminant susceptibility determinations. The capacity development program aims to help public water systems strengthen their ability to consistently supply safe drinking water to their customers and recognizes the importance of source water assessments in this process. Source water assessments also help to educate citizens about protecting sources of public drinking water and facilitate developing and implementing effective strategies for managing potential contamination sources.