Source Water Protection Program

Supporting a wide variety of actions and activities aimed at safeguarding, maintaining, or improving the quality and quantity of sources of drinking water and their contributing areas.

On this page:

• About the Program
• Types of Assistance
• How This Program Helps Build Resilience
• Connections to Other EPA, Federal, or Non-Governmental Efforts

About the Program

“Source water” refers to sources of water (such as rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and groundwater) that provide water to public drinking water supplies or private wells. The Source Water Protection (SWP) program strives to protect sources of drinking water by developing tools and approaches or by supporting voluntary partnerships that can help prevent contamination. Climate change impacts to source water can include loss of water supply and increased risk of wildfire due to drought, degraded water quality from increased stormwater runoff carrying pollutants, and increased temperatures that can increase harmful algal blooms.

Types of Assistance

The SWP program offers a variety of assistance that can contribute to building climate resilience.

Financial Assistance

• A three-year competitive grant is typically available to provide training for state and Tribal source water and underground injection control programs. Overall, the funding helps enhance communication and coordination between the EPA and the states and Tribes to protect drinking water sources.
• Other funding assistance for source water protection efforts is discussed below.

Technical and Planning Assistance

• The SWP website features the basics of source water protection, describes components of a SWP program, highlights opportunities for funding and partnerships, and provides information on preparing for emergencies, as well as other source water protection resources.
• Public water systems, states, and emergency managers can easily find tools such as the Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters to help identify potential sources of contamination and plan prevention strategies.

Coordination, Education, Outreach, and Facilitation Assistance

• The SWP Program has partnerships with 30 organizations through the National Source Water Collaborative (SWC). Originally formed in 2006 to combine the strengths and tools of a diverse set of member organizations, the SWC helps facilitate actions that protect drinking water sources for future generations.
  • The SWC Learning Exchange is an information sharing platform for discussing current challenges, sharing stories, and transferring knowledge on source water protection.
  • The SWC How to Collaborate Toolkit (pdf) includes resources on finding funding ideas, leveraging funding opportunities, and securing sustainable funding.
  • The SWC website provides access to reports, guidance, and tools on the economics and finance mechanisms underlying watershed investment programs.
• The SWP Program offers assistance with state and local workshop facilitation, when possible.

How This Program Helps Build Resilience

Source water protection is a component of emergency preparedness and response planning for drinking water programs. These planning efforts can help identify and address risks from a variety of extreme events, including those exacerbated by climate change.

• America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) amendments to the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)—Recent revisions to EPCRA under the AWIA require that community water systems have access to EPCRA Tier II information (i.e., hazardous chemical inventory data) and receive notification of specified hazardous substance releases that potentially affects their source water.
• AWIA Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act—Any community water system serving a population greater than 3,300 is now required to develop or update a Risk and Resilience Assessment and Emergency Response Plan. Information generated through this requirement can also be used to update source water assessments and inform the selection and implementation of source water protection measures in the context of long-term risks.

Connections to Other EPA, Federal, or Non-Governmental Efforts

A variety of financial assistance programs at the EPA and other federal agencies can help communities build a patchwork of funding strategies to meet their source water and public health protection goals with climate change considerations.

EPA Funding Resources

• The EPA's Funding Integration Tool for Source Water (FITS) is a one-stop-shop tool that explains how users can integrate various federal funding sources to support activities that protect sources of drinking water. The tool uses the steps of a source water assessment and protection program (e.g., delineation of a source water protection area), and real-life examples to demonstrate how 14 federal funding sources may be used for activities that protect sources of drinking water.
• The AWIA expanded source water protection eligibilities (pdf) under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Program Local Assistance set-aside (often referred to as the 15% set-aside).
• The Funding Land Conservation Projects with the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) fact sheet demonstrates how the CWSRF provides assistance to eligible recipients for projects promoting land conservation and restoration, and also highlights successful projects in California, Georgia, and Ohio.
• The SWP program often collaborates with the CWA Section 319 Nonpoint Source Program grants to support activities (e.g., monitoring) to assess the success of nonpoint source management implementation projects.
• The Water Quality Monitoring Grants program under Clean Water Act Section 106 can also support SWP activities. These grants provide funding to states, eligible interstate agencies, and eligible tribes to build and sustain effective water quality programs that ensure the health of our nation’s water bodies.
• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law significantly increased the amount of funds available through the DWSRF, CWSRF, and the Emerging Contaminants- Small and Disadvantaged Communities Grant program. BIL funds provide increased opportunities to support activities that perform source water protection through traditional eligibilities of the DWSRF and CWSRF, in addition to eligible activities to address emerging contaminants in source water.

Other Federal Agency Resources

• The enacted 2018 Farm Bill specifies that 10% of conservation funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) be targeted for source water protection. The Farm Bill supports conservation efforts through reauthorization and expanded flexibility of NRCS conservation programs. NRCS offers financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers through conservation practices, activities, and enhancements to help agricultural producers make and maintain improvements on their land. The Inflation Reduction Act significantly increases funding available to the NRCS Conservation Programs subject to the 2018 Farm Bill provision requiring 10% of conservation funding target source water protection.
• Both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act also significantly increase funding to U.S. Forest Service that perform conservation, implement sustainable forestry practices, and wildfire prevention and mitigation activities, which serve to protect drinking water when performed within areas critical to source water quality and drinking water distribution systems.
• Assistance Listings (formerly referred to as the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) is a searchable compilation of assistance programs administered by federal agencies or state and local governments that includes water quality protection or source water protection.