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| Photo: Patrick Zephyr |
The Enabling Drinking Water Source Protection initiative, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a partnership among The Trust for Public Land (TPL), the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, River Network and the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA). The project assesses state programs to recommend the best opportunities for program alignment that will support local communities in their drinking water source protection efforts.
By working with state program managers, recognized national experts in land use, land conservation, and water quality protection, the project aims to help states work across political and programmatic boundaries to better align planning, economic development, regulation and conservation to protect drinking water sources at the local and watershed levels. Protecting drinking water sources through better land use management requires strong collaboration among state agencies and between all levels of government and concerned stakeholders. Collaboration maximizes the effectiveness of initiatives led by land use planners, water utilities, watershed associations, government officials, conservationists, farmers and foresters.
State programs interact to shape local choices in complicated ways. New data is helping us understand how land use and development choices affect the quality of ground and surface water sources, making it clear that well-intentioned policies can be working at cross-purposes. One program or agency may be trying to reward local source water protection efforts while another is creating incentives for incompatible uses. At the same time, new technologies are emerging that allow program managers to readily share important geographic data with colleagues and the public, while newly proven financing and policy strategies are emerging to support government and individual efforts to do the right thing. This program draws on this new knowledge and technology to achieve more effective collaboration between public and private stakeholders and better congruence between various state policies to enhance drinking water source water protection.
Action plans have been completed for:
Action plans are being developed for Missouri and New York.