Source Water Assessment Program

The 1996 Amendments to the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act initiated the Source Water Assessment Program(see section 1453 of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Appendix I). The 1996 Amendments required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish a guidance document to benefit States in developing a Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP). The guidance outlines the main requirements and offers flexibility to State’s to individualize their SWAPs (USEPA, August 1997).

The State of Nebraska Legislature passed LB517 in 1997, giving the responsibility for developing and implementing a SWAP to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE), then the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. The Ground Water Section at NDEE administers the Wellhead Protection (WHP) Program, and the SWAP will be coordinated out of that section as well.

This is the official submittal of the Source Water Assessment Program for the State of Nebraska. Although this is the official submittal, it is very important to NDEE that it remain readable to the general public. A very strong effort has been made to gain public involvement in the development of the Source Water Assessment Program. This submittal has been written with the public in mind, and could be used to inform and educate individuals and Public Water Supply Systems (PWSs) about the SWAP.

The program description reflects the input from people from across Nebraska. It was written to be a “public” document, in a readable, straight-forward format. It is being presented in three parts:

• Main SWAP description,
• Appendices, important to the SWAP description, and
• Attachments, important to EPA in evaluating the public input NDEE used when developing the program

(this part is available to the public upon request).

Beginning in FY2004, funds have been set aside each year from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to finance source water protection projects statewide. For more information about these grants, go to the Source Water Protection Program.

Nebraska's SWAP was approved by the US EPA on October 25, 1999.
(See attached file: Source Water Assessment Program.pdf)