4 1 CAPTURE ZONE DELINEATION BACKGROUND 1.1
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1.1
Ground-Water Protection in the US
Before 1986, the US EPA had enacted several laws aiming in part to control potential sources of ground-water contamination. They include the 1976 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976), and the Clean Water Act (1977), among others. These federal policies leave the responsibility of implementation with state and local governments (Gallagher, 1990). As such, the degree and type of enforcement may vary widely. A potential drawback is their focus on specific contaminants. Such an approach fails to identify the vulnerability of water-supply systems as a whole. Furthermore, contaminant-specific legislation can lead to action that is responsive in nature (i.e., efforts that are remedial rather than preventative). A comprehensive federal ground-water protection program first appeared in the 1986 SDWA Amendments (Gallagher, 1990). Known as the Wellhead Protection (WHP) Program, it was designed to prevent contamination of ground-water supplies in conjunction with the traditional treatment approach. Rather than focus on individual contaminant sources, the WHP approach examines each well’s recharge area and identifies existing and potential sources of contamination. The program was to be administered by state and local governments, and consisted of four parts: 1) delineation of Wellhead Protection Areas (WHPA), 2) inventory of potential contaminant sources within the delineated area, 3) management controls for potential contaminant sources, and 4) contingency plans for emergency situations. A decade later, the 1996 SDWA Amendments established the Source Water Assessment (SWA) Program. This program is very similar to WHP program with two main differences: the Source Water Protection Areas (SWPA) include surface-water as well as ground-water supplies, and the program requires that states make all SWA reports accessible to the public. Currently, most states have completed their SWA reports.