The previous law focused on treatment of public drinking water. Delegate primary responsibility for prevention to the states, upon EPA program approval. Require that states' plans and the results of the assessment be made available to the public. Require each public water system to provide its customers with an annual consumer confidence report including information on contaminants and drinking water standards violations and information on its source waters. Provide some funding to the states to accomplish these goals.
States inform the public of all results of the assessment.
A strong protection plan will include measurements of effectiveness to assess how well the efforts are working. In August 1997, EPA published its State Source Water Assessment and Protection Programs Guidance . States are urged to build on existing source water programs when possible in designing the Source Water Assessment Plan. Whether building on ongoing efforts or just beginning the process, each state must submit a source water assessment plan to EPA for approval by February 1999. So time is short.