1998 News Releases
PA EPA AND FEDERAL AGENCIES SIGN COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT TO PROTECT DRINKING WATER SOURCES
Release Date: 11/13/98
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1998
EPA AND FEDERAL AGENCIES SIGN COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT TO PROTECT DRINKING WATER SOURCES
As a key action item of the Clinton Administration’s Clean Water Action Plan, nine Federal Agencies today signed an agreement to cooperate and partner with state, tribal and local governments to design and implement their drinking water source assessment and protection programs within an integrated watershed framework. Today’s agreement ensures full Federal cooperation with these government entities as they fulfill the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act mandate to assess the potential threats to each public drinking water system from ground water and surface water sources. Using information contained within their electronic databases, Geographic Information Systems, and other available information, states, tribes and localities will be able to accurately delineate source water protection areas, identify and map sources of contamination that threaten drinking water supplies and inform the public about the susceptibility of their public water systems to these threats. The signatory agencies are: EPA, U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior, and Transportation, the U.S. Postal Service, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Regional Forums will be held in 1999 across the country to facilitate partnership building and to ensure implementation of the Federal assistance that this agreement promises.