Chapter 2

Public Participation In Source Water Assessment And Protection

2.1 Introduction

The United States Congress envisioned a program that would provide the American public with information about their drinking water. It was hoped that this information would inspire the public to become interested and involved with local water quality issues. Congress also felt that the public should play a significant part in the development of this program on the state level. The Source Water Assessment and Protection Program was designed to accomplish these goals.

DEQ also believes that public participation is critical when developing a program for the protection of the public. Involving the public in Source Water Assessment and Protection is the only way that public concerns, needs, and comments can be fully addressed. The success of Source Water Assessment and Protection relies upon public awareness, understanding, and support. This cannot be accomplished without the involvement of the public throughout the entire process.

2.2 Initial Questionnaire and Fact Sheet

The DEQ has encouraged public participation since the development of the Source Water Assessment and Protection Program began. A fact sheet and questionnaire was sent to all non-profit and non-federal public water supply systems in the Fall of 1997. The questionnaire was used to gauge public water system interest in source water assessments. Approximately one quarter of the public water systems responded. All of the public water systems which responded indicated that they would be interested in participating. The responses of this questionnaire were used to successfully lobby the Wyoming State Legislature to obtain the funds necessary for conducting source water assessments. A copy of the fact sheet and a summary of the questionnaire responses are included as pages 53 through 57 of Appendix A.

2.3 Advisory Committee

Appendix A.

The procedure used to develop the Wellhead Protection Program Committee was used as a template for the Source Water Assessment and Protection Advisory Committee. In addition, DEQ extended an invitation to other groups identified in the EPA State Guidance Document which were not represented on the Wellhead Committee. An attempt was made to convene a committee which could represent the diverse interests of Wyoming's population. Representation was provided for local, state, and federal government agencies; industry; agriculture; water suppliers; and citizen's groups. A list of participating Advisory Committee members and their affiliations appears as Table 2.1. In addition to the committee members listed in Table 2.1, representatives of DEQ and the EPA also attended. Table 2.2 lists these attendees, the agency which they represented, and the program with which each person is affiliated.

The Advisory Committee provided invaluable assistance to DEQ in several areas. For example, the Advisory Committee refined the procedure used to rank public water systems applying for assessments. This is an important aspect of the Wyoming Program because funding may not allow the completion of an assessment for each applicant. The Advisory Committee assisted in ensuring that no one industry or interest would be singled out during the contaminant inventory process. The Advisory Committee was also instrumental in reviewing and approving delineation methods.

Table 2.1 Advisory Committee members and affiliations.

The Advisory Committee also helped define the role of Source Water Assessment and Protection Program for the state of Wyoming. The committee was given a questionnaire in the Fall of 1997. Questions were asked concerning the relationship between the Source Water Assessment and Protection Program and other water quality programs; who will benefit from it and how; and how the delineations, contaminant inventories, and susceptibility analyses should be done. This questionnaire and a summary of the responses can be found beginning on page 59 in Appendix A.

Table 2.2 Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and United States Environmental Protection Agency employees which attended the Advisory Committee meetings.

2.4 Public Meetings

All of the Advisory Committee meetings were open to the public. Outside of the Advisory Committee meetings, the first public meeting at which Source Water Assessment and Protection was addressed was the Wyoming Association of Municipalities meeting held in Laramie in 1997. Source Water Assessment and Protection was also presented at seven Wellhead Protection Program training sessions put on by the Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems. A memo documenting the total attendance of one hundred and thirty five people at these training sessions is included in Appendix A.

State-wide attendance was encouraged when the Source Water Assessment and Protection document was reviewed and approved by the Water and Wastewater Advisory Board on February 8, 1999. Two paid advertisements announcing the availability of the draft Source Water Assessment and Protection document were printed in the Casper Star Tribune. One advertisement was printed one month prior to the Water and Wastewater Advisory Board meeting. The other advertisement was printed the week before the meeting. The Casper Star Tribune is Wyoming's largest circulation newspaper. Notice of this meeting was also mailed to the DEQ newsletter mailing list and posted on the DEQ web page. A copy of the Water and Wastewater Advisory Board meeting notes and the open public discussion on the Source Water Assessment and Protection document is included in Appendix A.

2.5 Newsletters and Letters

The DEQ Quarterly Newsletter ran articles discussing Source Water Assessment and Protection. Articles describing various aspects of the Source Water Assessment and Protection Program and the development process were printed in five issues of the Newsletter. The DEQ Newsletter mailing list is quite extensive. It is distributed to over 7,000 addresses, including those for individuals, private organizations, businesses, and local governments. Copies of the newsletter articles are included in Appendix A.

The DEQ also received several letters addressing issues in the Source Water Assessment and Protection document. These letters are included in Appendix A. In addition, a couple of individuals provided DEQ with copies of the Source Water Assessment and Protection document marked with both conceptual and editorial suggestions. These comments were considered when preparing the final draft of the document.

2.6 Web Page

The draft Source Water Assessment and Protection Program document was available over the Internet beginning January 1, 1999. Information on the Wellhead Protection Program and Source Water Assessment and Protection Programs can currently be obtained from both the Groundwater Program page at http://deq.state.wy.us/wqd/groundpg.htm and the Source Water Assessment and Protection page at http://deq.state.wy.us/wqd/w&ww/swap.htm. The use of the web page will soon be expanded to encompass current activities for both programs. Copies of program documents, current newsletters and fact sheets, assessment applications, and assessment results will be posted on the web page.

The University of Wyoming, Wyoming Resources Data Systems also maintains a Source Water Assessment and Protection web page which provides a brief summary of the program and a copy of the document. This page will most likely serve as a pointer to the main Source Water Assessment and Protection web page in the future

Chapters
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Glossary | Acronyms
Appendices
A | B | C | D
Wyoming's Source Water Assessment Guidance Document Contents